One 9/10 in Peter Smith's Leeds Rhinos player ratings, but mainly 4s and 5s from thrashing at Wigan Warriors

Remarkably, Leeds are still in the play-off race, but they suffered a painful lesson in a 38-0 thrashing at Wigan Warriors tonight.

Leeds conceded back-to-back tries to trail 10-0 after eight minutes and - other than a decent spell in the second quarter - were never in the game. In 80 minutes they didn’t create a single try-scoring opportunity.

It was their second nilling of the season, both against teams who kept them scorerless last term - Wigan and Catalans Dragons. They have improved since Brad Arthur took over as coach, but fell back into bad habits against a good Warriors side.

Three early penalties helped Wigan establish their dominance, the count finished seven-four and the hosts received two set restarts to Leeds’ none. On top of that, Rhinos made unnecessary errors at key times, most notably just before the break.

They defended with spirit for long patches, but began to fall off tackles towards the end. The positives were Rhinos’ rookies. One error apart, Alfie Edgell, 20, had a strong game at full-back and 19-year-old Riley Lumb, on the left-wing, was excellent, putting in some strong tackles, playing error free and having a couple of strong runs.

James McDonnell also had a real dig against his hometown club, but Wigan were a class apart and Bevan French tore Leeds to shreds. The hosts scored a remarkable opening try after just five minutes.

Harry Smith’s kick was caught by Liam Marshall who managed to offload back to Jake Wardle before being bundled into touch by David Fusitu’a. The centre also stayed in play and dived over at the corner.

In the next set, Kaide Elis burst down the middle and French was in support to take the pass. Adam Keighran converted for the first of his five goals and Rhinos were on the rack. All that came from Leeds being caught offside and they put themselves under more pressure when Paul Momirovski hoofed the restart out on the full, though they survived that.

Marshall put a foot on the touchline before dotting down from his own kick and Leeds didn’t have possession in Wigan’s half until the 22nd minute - which was on the final tackle and greeted with ironic cheers by the Rhinos fans. The only other thing they had to celebrate all evening was the scoreline from Leigh, where Hull KR’s big win kept Leeds in touch with the top-six going into the final round of the regular season.

After that first incursion Rhinos had a good spell and the game was largely played in Wigan’s half, though the visitors didn’t look like scoring. Rhinos deserve credit for steadying the ship following their disastrous start, but the habit of shooting themselves in the foot is one they are finding hard to shake.

They held out after a forward pass by Jarrod O’Connor conceded possession in Leeds’ territory and it looked like they’d go in at the break only 10 points down, but Momirovski lost possession with three minutes left and Marshall scored his second in the resulting set.

It was a similar story straight after the interval when Wigan received back-to-back penalties, against McDonnell for holding on and James Bentley after an obstruction. Ellis went through a gaping hole in Leeds’ defence and at 20-0 Rhinos were on to damage limitation.

They didn’t manage that as Wigan added three more tries. Abbas Miski crossed from French’s kick; Harry Smith’s kick took a deflection off Harry Newman to Keighran and on the final play French chipped over the top and regathered to cap a devastating personal performance.

Wigan Warriors: Field, Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall, French, H Smith, Harvard, Leeming, Thompson, Nsemba, Farrell, Ellis. Subs Byrne, Mago, Dupree, Forber.

Leeds Rhinos: Edgell, Fusitu’a, Momirovski, Newman, Lumb, Croft, Frawley, Oledzki, Ackers, Sangare, McDonnell, Martin, C Smith. Subs O’Connor, Bentley, Donaldson, Lisone.

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan). Attendance: 15,146.

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