A fairytale comeback by Great Britain captain Paul Sculthorpe inspired St Helens to a shock victory to help the Super League champions maintain their stranglehold on the annual World Club Challenge.

Sculthorpe brought forward his return from major knee surgery and, in his first match for five months, produced a man-of-the-match display to earn his side a memorable victory in front of an ecstatic 23,207 crowd in Bolton.

It was one of a number of heroic displays which brought the fourth successive victory for English clubs and a 10th in 13 clashes with the Australian champions going back to 1987.

There were shades of 2001, when Saints came from 18-6 down to beat the Broncos 20-18 at a hail-lashed Reebok Stadium.

This time the Australians could not cope with the storm whipped up by a Saints outfit completely unrecognisable from the side that lost two of their first three Super League matches.

They trailed 8-0 when Sculthorpe entered the fray but they were transformed by their talismanic leader, who played like he had never been away.

Equally heroic was hooker Keiron Cunningham, who defied a hip injury to join the action at half-time and give his side another lift while winger Ade Gardner recovered from a nightmare start to score a brace of tries.

Brisbane, able to field 14 members of October's Grand Final-winning team, had signalled their intention by arriving in England 10 days early and playing a warm-up game in Wales.

But that did little to prepare them for a St Helens side that yet again demonstrated their ability to rise to the big occasion.

Yet they made the worst possible start when right winger Gardner dropped Darren Lockyer's high kick from the Broncos' first meaningful attack to gift second rower Corey Parker a soft try on five minutes.

Parker added the conversion and, from virtually the same spot, put over a penalty eight minutes later after Saints' former Australian Test centre Matt Gidley had been pulled up for lifting in the tackle.

Going 8-0 down so early in the game might have deflated a side with fragile confidence but Saints were full of fight and the 20th-minute introduction of Sculthorpe had a galvanising effect.

The Australians were forced to withstand wave after wave of attack as James Roby and Sean Long prodded and prompted and the workload gradually began to take its toll.

As their error rate increased, the Broncos resorted to slowing down the play but Saints struck in the last play of the first half to gain a crucial psychological advantage.

Brisbane centre Justin Hodges narrowly failed to palm back a penalty kick to touch and smart passing along the line enabled Gidley to work Gardner over at the corner.

Sculthorpe demonstrated his value to the team with the touchline conversion but there were more twists and turns to come in an enthralling second half.

A strong run from full-back Karmichael Hunt pulled the Saints defence out off position and left winger Darius Boyd was unmarked as he gathered Lockyer's lofted kick to touch down.

It could have been worse for Saints, as Lockyer narrowly failed to control the ball as he hacked it to the line following Gidley's knock-on while the Broncos had a let-off when Leon Pryce dropped the ball in an ideal position to use the overlap.

The pivotal moment came on 57 minutes when Cunningham's smart pass from dummy half enabled Sculthorpe to slip through a rare chink in the Broncos defensive line.

Sculthorpe's second conversion tied the scores but Parker's penalty goal on 63 minutes, awarded for a high tackle by Gidley, nudged the visitors back in front.

The game then built up to a tremendous climax as Gardner leapt high into the night sky to bring down Long's high kick to claim the match-winning try, to which Sculthorpe added his third goal.