THE writing was on the wall for Saints from the moment Kyle Amor dropped his first carry from the kick off - and the subsequent 46-18 mauling was all they deserved.

Four first half Leeds tries gave them a 22-0 lead at the break and left Saints with little to play for but pride in the second half.

Sloppy errors were invariably punished by the ruthless leaders with Leeds' opener from Kallum Watkins coming after Paul Aiton had intercepted Mark Percival's pass.

Then when Matty Dawson made a hash of a play the ball, Leeds were in again with Kylie Leuluai crashing over from close range.

Saints' horror show continued when Percival put his restart kick out on the full, and in the next passage wing Ryan Hall was flying in at the left hand corner.

It could have been worse had Jimmy Keinhorst not dropped the ball over the line after Dawson had let the kick downfield bounce.

It was temporary respite with Ash Handley crossing for the first of his hat-trick to make it22-0 at the break.

Saints came out with more purpose in the second half and when an otherwise subdued Luke Walsh launched a high kick for Matt Fleming to catch, Josh Jones was up on the inside to clean up for the try.

That comeback was short-lived, with Carl Ablett ripping through Walsh's tackle on the right to resume the Leeds points procession, despite being down to 12 men with Zak Hardaker in the sin bin.

Leeds let rip again, when Handley crossed for his second, before Jordan Turner responded with Saints' second.

And Saints showed a flicker of resistance when James Roby threaded a fine kick towards the posts for Amor to chase and ground.

It tantalisingly cut the deficit to 14 points, but that was as close as Saints got.

Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield sent Handley dashing through for his hat-trick, using the man outside him to pass Percival without a finger being laid upon him.

Hall brushed past Dawson on the line to add another, with Sinfield's conversion and penalty concluding the drubbing.

Saints have a lot to work on before these teams meet again in the cup semi at the end of the month.