Cronulla Sharks 28

Saints 12 SAINTS found true bulldog spirit to give Cronulla a real run for their money on Monday.

Ripped apart by the Sharks at Knowsley Road last month, the Saints were in no mood to let it happen again on the Australian coast.

They showed a gritty determination to match the home side in every department. And it must be said the final margin of victory flatted Cronulla, with the final six points coming in the last minute.

But to put events in their true perspective, it must be remembered Cronulla were missing eight first-team regulars.

It took Cronulla 16 minutes to get their points on the board when winger Geoff Bell forced his way through some indifferent tackling to score in the corner. Paul Green landed a fine conversion from wide out.

In the first series of matches Saints simply folded after going behind. But this was a more fired-up unit. And with Vila Matuatia leading the charge Saints forced their way back into the game.

They were rewarded five minutes later, when, after good work by Matautia and Danny Arnold, the outstanding Kieron Cunningham forced his way over from acting half-back with a posse of Australians on his back. The Saints' front six were giving easily as good as they were taking, but three minutes later Cronulla edged two points further ahead with a Green penalty.

Worse was to come on 31 minutes. Andy Haigh had made a great a great try-saving tackle in the corner. But from the play-the-ball Cronulla quickly switched play. Adam Dykes spotted Haigh was still out of position, put a neat grubber kick to the posts and followed it up to score a fine individual effort.

The conversion was a fomality for Green.

Saints' scrambling defence continued to impress and despite one or two close shaves they held on until half-time.

Five minutes into the second period the Knowsley Roaders pulled two points back with a Goulding penalty after Jason Stevens was placed on report for an alleged spear tackle on Andy Haigh.

But Cronulla roared back when winger Paul Donaghy went over wide out depsite a despairing last ditch tackle by Sean Long.

Erriors were beginning to creep into both sides' play -too many to make it a classic -and one from such mistake the Sharks went further ahead.

Andy Haigh, under little apparent pressure, failed to gather the ball cleanly from a bomb. And from the resultant scrum international Andrew Ettingshausen forced his way over. At 22-6 it looked as though the floodgates might open. But Saints, with Chris Joynt having his best game in weeks, stuck to their guns.

It produced dividends on the 68-minute mark. A shimmy past Joynt took him past two Australian tacklers and into space.

With the cover converging on him Joynt produced a neat inside pass that sent the largely ineffective Paul Newlove on a 20-yard run to the posts. Goulding converted.

Saints continued to look for points to improve their Pool A standing in the World Club Championships. But they were struck by a bolt from the blue when Ettingshausen completed a classy length-of-the-field movement by touching down near the posts, giving Green an easy conversion to wrap up proceedings.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.