Friday 15th February 2013, 20:00 - Round:3

Australian stand-off Daniel Holdsworth put Hull FC into a winning position but failed to deliver the killer punch to leave the scores tied in the Super League clash at Langtree Park.

The Black and Whites fought back from 22-12 down to draw level with the aid of Richard Whiting's 72nd-minute try and ought to have taken both points after dominating the final quarter.

Yet Holdsworth, who had helped create all four of his side's tries and struck three superb conversions, missed a kick to win it and was also wide with two long-range drop-goal attempts in a frantic finish.

That left St Helens relieved to salvage a point after they had once again looked distinctly out of sorts, despite the return from injury of influential hooker James Roby.

The Black and Whites were aiming for a third win in four visits to St Helens and made a dream start, with right winger Jason Crookes taking Holdsworth's pass to score the game's first try after only four minutes.

Crookes undid much of his good work by dropping the ball from Lee Gaskell's high kick that led to Saints' equalising try and went off injured almost straight away.

Slow-starting Saints then took control of the match with the aid of a three-try burst inside 17 minutes.

Prop Anthony Laffranchi took Roby's inside pass to cross, skipper Paul Wellens combined with Josh Jones to get winger Francis Meli over for his third try of the season and former Hull centre Jordan Turner stepped inside his old team-mate Kirk Yeaman to open his account for the club.

Gaskell kicked two of his three conversions as St Helens led 16-6 but the introduction of hooker Aaron Heremaia injected new purpose into the visitors and they cut the deficit nine minutes before half-time when impressive full-back Shannon McDonnell won the race to Holdsworth's perfectly-judged kick to the line.

Holdsworth's second goal made it 16-12 and Hull might have been ahead by the break had they made more of possession handed to them courtesy of two handling errors by St Helens' debutant forward Alex Walmsley.

The 6ft 5in Walmsley made up for his mistakes with some strong carries on an encouraging introduction to Super League but Saints lost one of their stalwarts six minutes into the second half when Wellens hobbled off.

Saints nevertheless extended their lead when centre Jones crossed out wide for their fourth try on 49 minutes but Hull once more kept in touch when England winger Tom Briscoe profited from Holdsworth's pinpoint kick to the corner to claim his side's third.

Holdsworth's immaculate touchline conversion cut the gap to just four points and the visitors thought they had equalised on 63 minutes when Briscoe crossed again, only to have the try disallowed for a forward pass.

Hull tightened their grip with the aid of further handling errors by the home side and Briscoe was bundled into touch after more clinical handling opened up the St Helens defence.

The pressure finally told on 71 minutes when Holdsworth and Richard Horne combined to get centre Whiting slicing through for Hull's fourth try.

That levelled the scores but Holdsworth was off target for the first time and he was also wide with two 40-metre drop-goal attempts in the last three minutes as the game ended in stalemate.