St Helens slumped to a shock engage Super League 14-6 home defeat at the hands of Harlequins at a freezing Knowsley Road.

Not many matches have kicked off with snow covering the majority of the pitch since the switch to summer Super League in 1996.

But, after the surface was deemed playable following two inspections earlier in the day, Quins ground out a thoroughly deserved victory.

St Helens, who last season won all three trophies with something to spare, could be forgiven for wishing the game had not survived the big freeze.

They were awful. Denied the time and space to play their usual expansive game by the conditions but more so by the outstanding visitors, Daniel Anderson's men struggled throughout.

They created next to nothing and, with Scott Hill and Danny Orr dovetailing superbly at half-back on their Harlequins debuts, the visitors outscored Saints by three tries to one.

Orr claimed a long-range interception try early on and although Matt Gidley soon crossed for Saints, scores by Lee Hopkins and Jon Wells sent the Londoners back to the capital with a memorable success.

The match was only deemed playable after pitch inspections at 10.30am and 4pm - and snow continued to fall throughout.

Yet the conditions seemed to suit Brian McDermott's men, who sprang a surprise by opening the scoring in the eighth minute after capitalising on a mistake from James Roby.

The score emanated from Saints' first meaningful attack of the game as Keiron Cunningham and Sean Long combined to find Roby on halfway.

The young forward attempted to keep the move going but succeeded only in throwing a misplaced pass into Orr's midriff.

The former Wigan stand-off showed a clean pair of heels to race 40 metres and cross the line at the Dunriding Lane end.

The uncovered terrace behind the goal where Paul Sykes converted lay empty after being deemed unsafe for fans due to the heavy snowfall.

The score stunned Saints but a clever kick from Long laid the platform for an attack which saw Leon Pryce provide a perfect offload to the onrushing Gidley to crash over the whitewash.

Long surprisingly failed to convert from between the posts and touchline and he erred again 12 minutes later as the visitors extended their lead.

Long's attempted grubber kick was collected by Quins full-back Chris Melling, another former Wigan man, who raced from inside his own half to race deep into Saints territory.

Ian Hardman and Francis Meli combined to halt Melling's process but Quins swiftly moved the ball out wide to Hopkins to burrow over in the left corner.

St Helens struggled to create noteworthy try-scoring opportunities but Long sent over a routine penalty on the stroke of half-time after Julien Rinaldi was sent to the sin-bin.

Pryce caused havoc five minutes after the break with a piece of meticulous dummy running which almost created an opening but the impressive Melling stood firm as the Quins' last line of defence.

And Quins effectively sealed victory on the hour mark when Wells grounded in the left corner before punching the air in delight.

The scene was set for a predictable onslaught by St Helens, but once again Quins held firm as the reigning champions began their home campaign in the worst possible fashion.