DANIEL ANDERSON ended his Knowsley Road love affair with a bang as Saints marched into the Grand Final.

The Saints gaffer is quitting after the season but not even the Aussie wanted another farewell home game next week.

Instead he sent out his troops on a mission to get to Old Trafford at the first attempt - and they carried his instructions out to perfection.

Anderdon said: "I was in awe in the second half. It was a brave way that we played - we played with the style that we have exemplified for the whole season.

"It was very satisfying and it's very exciting that we are through to Old Trafford."

Champions Leeds were left stunned by the thrashing Anderson's men handed out.

James Roby and Jon Wilkin romped in twice as Saints turned the screw in a dazzling second half and three other players joined the try rout.

Rhinos have the consolation of a second attempt to reach the Grand Final with another play-off game against either Catalans or Wigan.

But they will have to improve an awful lot on this performance if they hope to meet Saints again.

Rhinos coach Brian McClennan said: "There's a fair degree of shock to us all because we trained well and we felt confident.

"We are very disappointed but we will take it on the chin because we were beaten by the better team on the night.

"Saints were very good and they really got some momentum, but I do not think we really threatened.

"We were fairly easy to defend against. We are disappointed but it's character building.

"It's a reality check for us but we're playing at home next week and we've got a chance to make amends."

Saints came into the game on the back of a 22-match unbeaten run and they went hunting for the 23rd with a vengeance.

Super League's top try scorer Ade Gardner wasted little time in grabbing his 30th score of the season.

But it was a try that owed everything to some terrific handling by his Saints team-mates.

Leeds stand-off Danny McGuire had stopped a rampaging Francis Meli in his tracks, after Webb had got handed off.

But Saints shrugged off the temporary setback and swept the ball across field, through several hands, for Gardner to touch down.

Sean Long missed the conversion, but more suprising was Kevin Sinfield's fluffed conversion attempt to a Leeds try minutes later.

McGuire was given a gift touchdown after Meli dropped Sinfield's bomb, under pressure from Carl Ablett.

Sinfield could normally kick such close range conversion efforts in his sleep but hooked his effort wide to leave the scores level.

Saints responded to the danger with a spell of sustained pressure on the Leeds line and they got their reward after four successive sets.

Keiron Cunningham's short pass from dummy half sent in Matt Gidley and this time Long added the extra points.

He stretched Saints' lead with a penalty but with seconds left of the first half was unlucky to see a 45-yard penalty attempt hit the crossbar.

In between, Leeds desperately looked for ways to break down Saints' stubborn defence.

Meli made no mistake with a McGuire kick to the corner as Lee Smith bore down on him.

But the Rhinos looked certain to strike blood when Nick Scruton released a cracking pass out of the tackle only for Jordan Tansey to knock on.

Leeds hopes, however, of snuffing out the Saints threat were blown to shreds after the break

Leon Pryce and Roby both broke out of poor tackles before Meli raced in at the corner.

Roby was then sent in twice in quick succession by Cunningham to put Saints 26-4 ahead and totally in control.

Wilkin intercepted a Sinfield pass to race over and grabbed a second late on, with a Gareth Ellis consolation try sandwiched in between.

Leeds full-back Brent Webb is hopeful of being fit for next week's semi-final, despite being carried off injured.

It is thought Webb's knee injury was just a bang rather than anything more serious.

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