Saints recovered from an early 16-0 deficit to end their five match losing streak with a victory in the first Monday night fixture of the season.

Nathan Brown’s side forced two second-half tries with intense kick pressure and confirmed what could be a season changing win six minutes from time through youngster, Luke Thompson.

An error infested start from the visitors allowed Leeds to open the scoring after just four minutes thanks to Kallum Watkins who is pushing for an England call-up with fine form.

Then when experienced Saints centre, Sia Soliola was penalised and put on report for a late tackle on Danny McGuire, the Rhinos obliged again to register a 10-0 through Joel Moon.

For St Helens things went from bad to worse, especially for Jon Wilkin who conceded a penalty for a high tackle on Ryan Bailey before allowing Rob Burrow to dart in from dummy half for the Rhinos third try in the first quarter.

But after building pressure with a trio of consecutive penalties, Saints put themselves back in before the half our mark, Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook powering over from close range.

Wilkin then made up for his earlier mistake with a quick pop pass to the supporting, Sia Soliola who went in under the sticks to make the half-time score 12-16.

And just minutes into the second half, Saints levelled things up, Tommy Maknson rounding off a brilliant team try after Willie Manu offloaded to Mark Percival. Makinson then converted his own efforts to put his side ahead for the first time.

Leeds full-back, Zak Hardaker then made a humongous error whilst trying to ground the ball in the field of play to avoid a drop out, but his attempt ended in a fourth Saints try.

Video referee, Steve Ganson deemed that the former Featherstone youngster had lost the ball and gave Anthony Laffranchi the green light for ultimately the easiest try of his career.

Hardaker was then partially at fault for another soft try which turned the game completely on it’s head at 16-26.

He and captain, Kevin Sinfield became stuck whilst trying to deal with a Paul Wellens grubber which eventually landed in the grateful grasp of Makinson.

Ryan Bailey made his presence known immediately after returning from a first half injury, powering over the line before unleashing a wild celebration.

England academy tourist, Luke Thompson confirmed the victory six minutes from time, running a spectacular line for another try confirmed by the video referee.

Leeds: Hardaker, Vickery, Watkins, Moon, Hall, Sinfield, McGuire, Leuluai, Burrow, Bailey, Jones-Buchanan, Delaney, Clarkson.
Replacements: Kirke, Moore, Sutcliffe, Achurch
T: Watkins, Moon, Burrow, Bailey
G: Sinfield 3/4

St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Turner, Percival, Makisnon, Ashe, Wilkin, Perry, Howarth, Thompson, Soliola, Manu, McCarhy-Scarsbrook.
Replacements: Puletua, Laffranchu, Jones, Walmsley.
T: Makinson 2, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Soliola, Laffranchi, Thompson
G: Makinson 2/4, Percival ½

Referee: Ben Thaler
Video Referee: Steve Ganson