St Helens had no trouble extending their winning run to 12 matches despite six of their players doubling up from England's triumph in France on Friday.

Leon Pryce was the only international absentee with Paul Wellens, Ade Gardner and James Graham in the starting line-up and Jon Wilkin, James Roby and Maurie Fa'asavalu on the bench.

The hosts ran in nine tries, including two from Fa'asavalu, to pile on the problems for Huddersfield, still looking for a coach after Jon Sharp's sacking and the runaway victory leaves Saints just two points behind pacesetters Leeds.

Huddersfield handed David Hodgson, their close-season capture from Salford, his debut after a knee reconstruction but Kevin Brown was missing against his hometown club through suspension.

Saints had lost 28-26 in March at Huddersfield, who made a promising start but failed to convert early pressure into points.

A typical Keiron Cunningham try broke the deadlock after 18 minutes with the experienced hooker powering over from dummy half and Sean Long tagged on the conversion.

Huddersfield conceded 12 penalties in succession at one stage and a superb long pass from Pryce's deputy Kyle Eastmond gave Francis Meli a walk-in touchdown in the corner to stretch the lead to 10-0.

But sloppy play by Lee Gilmour was punished when his loose pass was snapped up by Giants stand-off Tom Hemingway, who sprinted 40 metres and then converted his own try.

Their joy was short-lived when Rod Jensen was sin-binned for obstruction on Paul Sculthorpe and Fa'asavalu had too much pace and strength to power over with his first touch after appearing as a substitute for Cunningham.

Long's goal made it 16-6 before Gardner caught the Giants napping from dummy half to notch his 22nd try of the season.

Jensen returned but Fa'asavalu's unstoppable charge brought him his second try to stretch the interval advantage to 28-6.

Huddersfield were hammered 10-2 in the first-half penalty count and further indiscretions allowed Willie Talau and Long to cross early in the second half.

A sizzling move ended with Roby finishing in style with Paul Sculthorpe's conversion, after Long was given a rest, extended the lead to 42-6.

Talau's second touchdown in the 56th minute was followed by Danny Kirmond's first for Huddersfield since his winter move from Featherstone and then Stuart Jones crossed against his old club to reduce the arrears to 46-16.

Huddersfield never gave up with a wonderful cover tackle from Paul Whatuira denying Gardner in the last minute.