Warrington Wolves 32 Leeds Rhinos 6 - The future looks bright despite Leeds Rhinos’ defeat at Warrington

Warrington won 32-6, but Leeds’ inexperienced side - similar to the one which lost by two more points against Catalans Dragons two weeks ago - gave them much more trouble than the 26-point margin suggests.

Rhinos got off to a poor start, going behind after just five minutes to a soft try, Toby King crossing from Dec Patton’s kick and Stefan Ratchford adding the extras.

At that point it could potentially have been a long, painful evening, but the response from Leeds was very impressive.

They were the better team for a 20 minutes spell, levelled the scores and then defended strongly when Warrington started to get some momentum, partly through Rhinos’ errors.

Warrington regained the lead before the interval, but only through a 38th-minute penalty goal, which was an indication of the respect the rookies were beginning to earn off Wolves.

Their coach Steve Price’s half-time team talk was presumably quite fiery and his side controlled the second half, adding four more tries.

Two of those came in the final five minutes when weary Rhinos gave away some penalties and set restarts and they could hold their heads high when the final hooter blew.

Leeds - well below strength as coach Richard Agar rested all his big guns ahead of Saturday’s Coral Challenge Cup final - never gave in, they applied heavy pressure at times and were unfortunate not to bag more than one try.

With Callum McLelland the only specialist half in the side, he had a lot on his shoulders and last tackle options were the only area of the game where Rhinos didn’t do themselves justice.

It was some of Leeds players’ second game in eight months and no surprise they tired late on, as they did against Catalans.

Harried into mistakes by Leeds’ defensive enthusiasm, Warrington struggled to complete their sets for a spell following the opening try and, after a long spell spent near the hosts’ line, Rhinos deserved their equaliser.

Jack Broadbent turned defence into attack with a smart ball steal on Josh Charnley, a penalty gave Rhinos extra sets and they made it count when lanky second-rower Sam Walters stretched over from close-range for a try which Jarrod O’Connor converted.

Leeds had an earlier opportunity from a hit and hope low kick by Bodene Thompson which found Brett Ferres, but he couldn’t hand on a few metres out.

Defensive highlights after that included Broadbent forcing an error from Anthony Gelling when Warrington were in a good attacking position, plus a superb high take under pressure from Liam Tindall, who again - as he did against Catalans - caught the eye.

Leeds held out until the 37th minute when Ratchford booted a penalty goal following a high tackle close to Leeds’ line.

Warrington were down to 12 men at that stage with Sitaleki Akauola in the sin-bin for upending James Harrison.

Before kick-off Leeds would have been delighted with a two-point interval deficit, but after the way the opening 40 unfolded they were probably disappointed not to be at least level.

That disappointment was misplaced, it was a terrific effort against good - if perhaps complacent - opposition.

Leeds also had the best chance early in the second half, after a good kick by Thompson had forced a drop-out.

Walters went close and then Thompson got a lovely offload away, but Jack Walker, agonisingly, couldn’t quite gather it in right in front of the Wire posts.

Warrington’s anxiety levels were growing, but they showed some class 11 minutes into the second period with a nice move to their left, where King sent Matty Ashton over.

The kick was missed, leaving six points between the teams and the result remained in the balance until 18 minutes from the end when Patton’s kick was taken by King and he offloaded to send Ben Currie in.

Ratchford converted and in the next set Currie broke through with support on either side, but the final pass to King was poor and the centre lost the ball in Tindall’s tackle.

There were only two scores between the teams until the 71st minute when Ratchford took another two following a late challenge by Adam Cuthbertson.

Rhinos ran out of steam after that and Daryl Clark forced his way over from acting-half before Ashton scored his second, from Gareth Widdop’s kick, both tries being converted by full-back Ratchford.

Rhinos’ line-up included four players who could be in Wembley contention, full-back Walker, veteran prop Cuthbertson and front row Tom Holroyd and loose-forward Cameron Smith.

Holroyd and Cuthbertson were both brought off relatively early in the first half.

Holroyd returned 15 minutes into the second, in place of Smith and Cuthbertson returned for the final quarter. Walker played the full-80.

Warrington’s win moved them above Rhinos, who drop out of Betfred Super League’s top-four, but looking more long term, the future does seem bright.

Warrington received six penalties to Leeds’ five and three of the game’s four set restarts.

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Thank you

Laura Collins