Paul Sculthorpe once more showed his class as St Helens moved into third place and provided another harsh lesson to Super League new boys Hull KR.

The Great Britain skipper marked his first home appearance of the season with a try and four goals in a man-of-the-match performance that echoed his comeback heroics in the World Club Challenge win over Brisbane Broncos.

Sculthorpe started as a substitute but had a major impact during his 45-minute stint as he continued his encouraging recovery from a series of knee injuries.

James Roby, James Graham and Maurie Fa'asavalu also made significant contributions from the bench as the champions found their touch in an eight-try display.

Former Scotland rugby union winger Jon Steel scored on his Super League debut to give Hull KR the scent of an upset before the champions hit back to lead 16-4 at half-time.

Rovers, who won four of their first five matches to set the pace in Super League XII, badly missed the organisation of injured captain James Webster and they have now conceded 70 points in their last two games.

They opened the scoring on 11 minutes, centre Luke Dyer getting a superb pass out of the tackle for Steel to touch down, and were far from overawed in a lively first half.

But St Helens gradually got on top as their class began to tell and Graham and Fa'asavalu in particular punished the visitors' defence with some powerful running.

The home side struck back when a break from full-back Paul Wellens set up the position for left winger Francis Meli to race onto Sean Long's perfectly-judged kick to score an equalising try.

And the champions hit the front on 23 minutes when Graham proved unstoppable on a charge from 10 metres out and Stephen Tyer, who struck the woodwork with his first goalkick, added the conversion to make it 10-4.

Saints sent on Sculthorpe after 25 minutes and he immediately began to apply some skilful touches as well as taking over the goalkicking.

They extended their lead just before the break when Fa'asavalu took a short pass from the impressive Graham to romp over for a third try and the Knowsley Road crowd witnessed Saints at their very best three minutes into the second half with a superb try from 70 metres out.

Roby, a first-half replacement for Keiron Cunningham, sliced through the visitors' defence deep in his own half and the supporting Sculthorpe took play on before sending Leon Pryce haring over from halfway.

Sculthorpe's second goal made it 22-4 and Saints thought they had scored again when Matt Gidley broke away only to be brought back for a forward pass.

Hull KR suffered a blow six minutes into the second half when a dazed Chris Chester, who had been switched from the pack to offset the absence of Webster, had to be helped from the field.

They pulled a try back when left winger Byron Ford took full-back Ben Cockayne's long pass to dive over at the corner and substitute Gareth Morton added a touchline conversion.

But Sculthorpe restored his side's 18-point lead when he took a short pass from Cunningham to crash over for his first Super League try of the season which he converted.

And the result was put beyond doubt just short of the hour when Sculthorpe released Gidley and the Australian outpaced the cover to score his fifth try for the club and make it 32-10.

Saints emphasised their superiority with further tries from Lee Gilmour and Meli but Rovers grabbed a consolation effort through Morton.