The Daniel Anderson-coached St Helens ran in seven tries to ease past Leeds 38-10 on Friday to reach a third successive English Super League Grand Final.

Leeds could still join them in the Old Trafford decider on October 4 by winning the final eliminator against either Wigan or Catalan Dragons.

It was the perfect result for Saints to pay tribute to club captain Paul Sculthorpe, the former Great Britain skipper who announced his retirement earlier Friday.

"I was in awe of the quality of performance in the second half," Anderson said.

"I thought the way we played was brave. You can go into your shell but we played with the style that has exemplified our season."

Leeds coach Brian McClennan said the defending champions were shocked by their defeat.

Saints led 12-4 at the interval against the defending champions, but ran away with the tie in the second-half with four tries.

Substitute hooker James Roby scored two of them in a five-minute spell but the biggest cheers of the night were reserved for centre Willie Talau and prop Nick Fozzard, who made their final appearances at Knowsley Road.

Saints produced some clinical handling after Francis Meli had been halted down the left-hand side, working the ball swiftly to the left where his fellow winger Ade Gardner took Matt Gidley's pass to cross unopposed for his 30th try of the season.

Leeds equalised after 14 minutes when Meli fumbled Kevin Sinfield's high kick and stand-off Danny McGuire was on hand to grab the touchdown.

But, with stand-off Leon Pryce shaking off an early knock to his groin to torment the visitors with his elusive runs, Saints regained the lead after 22 minutes when Gidley took Keiron Cunningham's short, sharp pass to squeeze over for a try.

Sean Long found the target with his kick and then added a penalty to open up an eight-point lead.

Long attempted to stretch his side's lead with a long-range penalty in first-half injury time but his kick bounced back off the crossbar into the grateful arms of defender Keith Senior.

St Helens dominated the opening exchanges of the second half and strengthened their grip on the tie with three more tries in a devastating 10-minute spell.

Pryce scythed through the Leeds defence and, after standing up in the tackle, took a return pass from Roby to combine with Talau to get Meli over at the corner.

Captain Cunningham then took centre stage by tearing out of attempted tackles to get Roby over a quick-fire pair of tries, and Long added one conversion to increase his side's lead to an emphatic 26-4.

Wilkin wrapped up the win with an interception try and then raced onto Long's grubber kick to claim a second, with Long taking his goal tally to five from nine attempts.

In between Wilkin's scores, Leeds second-rower Gareth Ellis forced his way over for a solo try, with Rob Burrow adding the goal.

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