LONDON — Sydney Roosters defeated St Helens 20-12 to win a record-equaling fourth World Club Challenge on Saturday.

With their victory, Sydney joined Wigan and Melbourne as four-time winners of the tournament which features the champions of Super League against the NRL winners.

NRL sides have now won 10 of the last 12 clashes.

"They were the two best teams in rugby league and it was a great game," said Roosters coach Trent Robinson.

"It was tough and physical. There was a great middle contest there, they all went after each other and the backs decided to move ball a bit and see who could get the execution right."

St Helens took a sixth-minute lead through prop Luke Thompson with Tom Makinson adding the conversion to make it 6-0 before the Roosters went in front with two unconverted tries in 10 minutes from winger Daniel Tupou and Kiwi center Joseph Manu.

Manu scored another try on the hour mark, seeing off three defenders but Kyle Flanagan again missed the extras.

Makinson dropped Jonny Lomax's pass within sight of the try line while Kevin Naiqama also went close as Saints pushed to respond.

But their hopes ended in the 68th minute when prop Siosiua Taukeiaho broke through the Saints defense for Luke Keary to score.

Taukeiaho took over the kicking duties and landed the conversion before wrapping up the Roosters' scoring with a penalty.

St Helens scored a consolation try three minutes from the end through prop Alex Walmsley with Makinson adding the conversion.

"I'm very proud of the effort," said Saints coach Kristian Woolf.

"We created plenty of opportunities and did a really good job defensively but didn't quite make the most of our opportunities.

"We had two tries disallowed either side of half-time — both were 50-50 calls — and there were a couple of other opportunities." — AFP