IT took Jonny Lomax just four minutes to remind everyone what has been missing during 14 agonising months on the sidelines.

Lomax, playing his first senior game since March 2015, was up on James Roby’s shoulder to collect the offload and then accelerate through the Leeds defence, throwing in an exquisite dummy to outfox Man of Steel Zak Hardaker, en route to scoring the first of his two tries.

Attacking as a full back, but defending as a wing or centre to preserve energy, Lomax’s zip gave Saints that early spark to start well against the champions.

It certainly was an emphatic way for the 25-year-old Billinger to mark his return from a second knee reconstruction.

And although it was not one for the defensive purists, there was plenty of tries in Saints’ 38-34 triumph to end a three-game losing streak at Langtree Park.

It was not just about Lomax – Saints also welcomed back Atelea Vea, Joe Greenwood and Mark Percival and all contributed in something of a crazy, pulsating, and unpredictable game that had last gave the home faithful something to cheer.

Two minutes after Lomax’ opener Luke Walsh took on the line before popping it up for second rower Greenwood to power over and make it 10-0.

Leeds were looking out of sorts, with a series of handling errors, but somehow Rob Burrow sparked a comeback.

The jack-in-the-box rolled back the years to allow Leeds the position for Sutcliffe to throw a long pass for Golding to score Leeds' first try and then raced over himself for the second after Lilley interception had cleared changed the complexion of the game.

And when centre Jimmy Keinhorst eased past an attempted tackle by Vea to open up a six-point lead it looked like Saints’ good early work had been in vain.

But Lomax levelled by the break when he read and collected Walsh's perfect grubber kick to chalk up his second try. It was a vital score and meant Saints came out with belief restored in the second half.

Saints hit the front when Kyle Amor rattled Hardaker with a thunderous tackle as the full back cleared the line, with the Saints prop scooping up the ball to touch down.

The Leeds fans did not like it, and Amor was on the receiving end of some big tackles on the resumption of the game, but there was nothing wrong with the Cumbrian prop’s bone-crunching tackle, Walsh probably had too long to line up his kick as Hardaker was treated and skewed his kick wide.

Hardaker left was helped from the field, but Leeds made light of that with speedy young winger Ash Handley dashing through the middle to then burn off Shannon McDonnell to restore Leeds’ lead.

But the tit-for-tat nature of the game continued when Roby took on the line and brought Greenwood back on the inside for his second try, Saints pushed further ahead when young French half Theo Fages weaved through for a fine try to restore a ten-point lead, but Leeds could not be shaken off.

They hit back with a soft try from Anthony Mullally, who managed to get past four defenders on the line to cut the lead to four.

So with the game back in the melting pot up stepped Fages to finish off a move sparked by a Vea offload, carried on by McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Walsh before the Frenchman dashed through from more or less a standing start to score a second cracking try.

But just to set hearts racing for the last five minutes Keinhorst added his second from a kick wide.

Saints, however, would not be denied with that man Lomax coming up with a big tackle on Golding to foil Leeds and secure the victory that will hopefully springboard them into this next crucial phase of the season in league and cup.

Saints: McDonnell; Lomax, Dawson, Percival, Owens; Fages, Walsh; Tasi, Roby, Amor, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Greenwood, Wilkin. Walmsley, Vea, Richards, Knowles.

Leeds: Hardaker; Golding, Watkins, Keinhorst, Handley; Lilley, Burrow; Galloway, Falloon, Garbutt, Delaney, Ablett, Jones-Buchanan. Subs: Sutcliffe, Singleton, Achurch, Mullally.