THERE were plenty of positives to draw from Saints’ comfortable nine-try victory over basement side Wakefield – not least the display of young hooker Dougie Charnock, the smooth settling in of the newly-arrived Shannon McDonnell and the midfield mastery of Luke Walsh.

Saints played some scintillating football at times, with the ball being worked across the field with some spell-binding passages of play with Walsh directing the operations.

Walsh scored two tries and he will have benefited from completing his second full 80-minute stint following his recuperation from his broken leg.

The Australian scrum half took on the line with his last tackle play to open Saints’ account on 12 minutes.

And then it was the turn of youngster Charnock to take centre stage.

The 20-year-old, making his first senior appearance in the red vee since April 2013, took his chance well in the absence of James Roby.

Commanding and assured at dummy half Charnock grabbed his first try in Saints colours when he burrowed his way over from close range.

He made it a brace when he collected Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s slipped pass to push the lead up to 16-0.

Despite the one-way traffic, there was a feeling that Saints were on a bit of a hiding to nothing and that showed sometimes in the atmosphere with a black Labrador in the Wakefield end make more noise than the West Stand.

But the flashes of fine play continued, with McCarthy-Scarsbrook intercepting on his own line and releasing Adam Swift.

Although the Saints left wing was caught, the ball was shifted right where Mark Percival sent Tommy Makinson in at the corner.

Wakefield had the last word of the half when wingman Tom Jonstone dashed in at the corner, but it would be the only time they troubled the scorers.

Saints were determined not to let the game drift in the second half and got the bit between their teeth almost immediately after the restart with McDonnell sending the outstanding Jordan Turner over.

And they were soon back for more with a Josh Jones break, supported by McDonnell – who ended up running in an unorthodox backward motion – creating the position for Walsh’s long ball to send Swift over in the corner.

Mose Masoe rampaged over, after good work from Travis Burns and Walsh, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake.

There was a lot to like about the way Swift and Makinson combined for Walsh’s second try that brought up the 40 point mark.

The scoring rate slowed down, but there was still time for the try of the match with the ball kept alive with a series of offloads with Burns and Jon Wilkin slipping out neat passes before Kyle Amor whipped a long ball right for Makinson to polish off in the tight corner.

Left wing counterpart Swift was denied what would have been another cracking try, beating his opposite number with a shimmy of the hips to touch down – only for a forward pass to be called.

So a safe two points, some decent game time for players who will be pretty central the campaign and, on the face of it, no significant injuries will be seen as a good night at the office for Saints.