Warrington Wolves 42 Leeds Rhinos 10: Visitors ripped apart in disastrous opening Super League defeat

It didn’t take long for any pre-season optimism to wear off, in front of a crowd of 11,082. Forty minutes into the new year Rhinos were 30-0 down and playing for pride only.

That opening half - against the club who finished second from bottom last term - was by far the worst seen from a Leeds side since coach Rohan Smith took charge in May, 2022. Warrington were better in every department: faster and more enthusiastic, they made big metres through the middle and attacked relentlessly.

Leeds got into Warrington’s red zone once in the first half and spent the rest of it defending… or not.

Rhinos looked nowhere near ready for competitive action. They didn’t really attempt to play with intensity in their four warm-up matches and it showed.

Morgan Gannon (second-row), Zane Tetevano (Ioose-forward) and Cameron Smith (substitute) all started at Warrington in different roles to the ones they’d begun warm-up games in, which can’t have helped.

The second half was a slight improvement, for a while at least, but it couldn’t have been much worse.

Rhinos showed some spirit and a debut try from Derrell Olpherts - with an excellent finish - meant they weren’t nilled.

Rhyse Martin’s touchline conversion made it 30-6 with 20 minutes left, but what happened next summed up their night.

They got a six-again in the following set, Ash Handley turned the ball over straight away and that led to former Rhinos loan player James Harrison crashing straight through the middle for Warrington’s sixth touchdown.

Rhinos looked better when Justin Sangare, who also scored a debut touchdown, Jarrod O’Connor and Smith were on the field, but there weren’t any major positives from Leeds’ sixth defeat in the past eight opening rounds.

The season’s opening try came after only three minutes. A short ball from Daryl Clark sent Ben Currie into a gap and his pass put Matt Dufty over.

Stefan Ratchford converted and then booted a penalty five minutes later after Richie Myler was offside in front of Leeds’ posts.That was the start of a disastrous night for the usually reliable full-back.

Warrington turned down two points from a kickable penalty soon after that, but grabbed their second try after 18 minutes.

Myler knocked on trying to take a high kick and Clark powered past Martin and held off Roberts from acting-half in the resulting set.

Ratchford’s conversion made it 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and the writing was already on the wall.

Things got even worse eight minutes before the interval when, in a set from a Leeds drop-out, Danny Walker dabbed a kick behind Rhinos’ line, Myler slipped and the Wire man followed up to touch down just before the ball went dead.

Ratchford landed his fourth goal to make it 24-0 and it has been a horrible, painful half of rugby for Rhinos - which degenerated even further.

On 38 minutes Tetevano and Smith managed to prevent Sam Kasiano getting the ball down over the line. That was a decent effort, but in the same set Williams kicked cross-field and Kasiano made an easy catch to go over, Ratchford converted and Warrington’s huge interval lead did not flatter them at all.

The third quarter was evenly-contested and Olpherts’ spectacular finish, from Blake Austin’s pass, gave the travelling support something to celebrate.

But after Harrison’s try, Olpherts knocked on at acting-half almost on Leeds’ line and Greg Minikin was allowed to dance through what passed for Leeds’ defence.

Sangare stormed over from Austin’s pass to bring up double figures for Rhinos, but Martin’s kick hit a post - the first time he’d missed an attempt at goal for Leeds since Magic Weekend last July.

Sangare had a dig and was involved in a scuffle in the last five minutes. Sam Lisone didn’t get a lot of game time in his first appearance and the other debutant Luis Roberts was enthusiastic and showed some a couple of nice touches without being able to influence the game.

The penalty count finished five-four in Warrington’s favour, after they received three to Leeds’ one before the interval. The set restarts went three-two to the hosts.

Warrington Wolves: Dufty, Thewlis, Mata’utia, Ratchford, Ashton, Williams, Drinkwater, Mikaele, Clark, Vaughan, Curriew, Nicholson, Harrison. Subs Kasiano, Walker, Bullock, Minikin.

Leeds Rhinos: Myler, Roberts, Fusitu’a, Handley, Olpherts, Austin, Sezer, Holroyd, Leeming, Lisone, Gannon, Martin, Tetevano. Subs Donaldson, O’Connor, Sangare, Smith.

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan). Attendance: 11,082