Rhinos

Betfred Super League

Wakefield (16) 22

Tries: Vagana, Hamlin-Uele, Myers, Sinfield Goals: Sinfield 3

Leeds (6) 24

Tries: Croft, McDonnell, Smith, Hankinson Goals: Connor 4

Leeds Rhinos edged a thrilling top-of-the-table clash against Wakefield Trinity with late drama to go four points clear in Super League.

A sell-out crowd at DIY Kitchens Stadium were royally entertained as the top two served up a match worthy of a Grand Final, but it was the Rhinos fans who were celebrating at the death.

Despite trailing for all but three minutes of the contest, Leeds held their nerve to land a sucker punch with two moments of skill from the boot of Jake Connor to snatch victory.

With 77 minutes on the clock, Connor’s grubber-kick was pounced on by Chris Hankinson to level the scores at 22-22. Connor then held his nerve to kick the extras from five yards inside the touchline as Leeds claimed a memorable success and remain on course to win the League Leaders’ Shield.

This was a match in which Leeds showed grit, discipline and character to hold on to Wakefield’s tail as the hosts withstood early pressure before stretching out into a 16-0 lead with three tries all converted by Jack Sinfield.

They came from Isaiah Vagana after a clever kick from Sinfield, a bullocking run from Caius Faatili, who broke two tackles and offloaded to Caleb Hamlin-Uele, while Jayden Myers went over in the corner as Wakefield delivered a commanding yet surprising advantage.

But Leeds have shown they rarely lie down so far this season and after Brodie Croft’s 25th Super League try of the campaign gave them hope, a stunning second-half comeback, in which Cam Smith was irresistible off the bench, helped them grab the win late on.

The second half began with Wakefield extending their advantage through Sinfield, who wrestled the ball over the line and then added the extras in an impressive overall display.

But in keeping with plenty of his team-mates, they faded as Leeds surged and after Cam Scott and Hamlin-Uele had rescued Wakefield with brilliant last-ditch tackles to deny two tries, the dam burst.

James McDonnell bullied his way through the home defence to make it 22-10 with Connor’s boot adding another two to put them within 10 points of Wakefield.

The excellent Smith – who will join Wakefield next season – was again aided by Connor as he powered through three minutes later as Leeds closed the gap to four points.

With the comeback definitely on, Wakefield were creaking under huge pressure, but to their credit they held on to their advantage until three minutes from time.

Connor’s kick to set up Hankinson out wide pulled the scores level, but last year’s Man of Steel is looking as shiny as ever and he produced a nerveless kick from the left flank to seal a remarkable turnaround.

Victory delivered a major step towards a top-two finish for Leeds, who are four points clear with five games remaining in the regular season and have a points difference of over 200 on Wakefield and Wigan Warriors, in second and third respectively.

Leeds Rhinos head coach Brad Arthur told BBC Radio Leeds:

“It’s the closest we’ve got to 80 minutes. I was pretty pleased with that performance. I thought we showed good resilience, good fight, the attitude was really good, too.

“I asked the boys for a bit extra tonight in their effort and physicality and they delivered.

“I thought the opposition were really good early, they made us fight and we were probably fortunate to go in [at half-time] at 18-0, but that’s exactly what we needed.

“Our resilience before half-time and then even at the end of the game on the try line, just to keep turning up for each other, and that’s an attitude thing, so I was really pleased with that.”

Leeds: Miller; Lumb, McCormack, Bird, Newman; Croft, Connor; Oledzki, O’Connor, Jenkins, Hankinson, McDonnell, Watkins.

Interchanges: Smith, Lloyd, Cassell, Holroyd.

Toulouse: Polselli; Laguerre, Tropis, Quai-Ward, Ulberg; Collin, Rouge; Butler, Marion, Belmas, O’Kane, Jassaume, Cator.

Interchanges: Garrigues, Chan, Toleafoa, Wallace.

Referee: Tara Jones.

Catalans Dragons head coach John Cartwright told Sky Sports:

“Intent-wise and physicality, it was a massive improvement on last week. To compete with them, we had to do that.

“Up until 16-0 down we were still in the game. We were unlucky because we should have scored a try and had to take our chances against a side like that, and we didn’t.

“There were a lot of things we had to get right to be in the game against them, and we didn’t quite do it. But physically, I just loved the way they had each other’s back in that second half.”

Leeds coach Brad Arthur told Sky Sports:

“We were pretty professional and thought we were quite tough as well. We wanted to dominate possession, and I thought we did that really well.

“Obviously there were some tactics after they came out after half-time, trying to rattle us, and we go back to round five and it worked for them. It was good that we learned our lesson.

“There are a couple of things we got wrong, but we were able to compose ourselves and just get back to our job.”

Catalans Dragons: Staines, Cotric, Laguerre, Faataape, Darrelatour, Sexton, Dodd, Allen, Leeming, Maria, Rogers-Smith, Lipowicz, Bousquet.

Interchanges: Condon, Navarrete, Wilson, Tison, Martin.

Leeds Rhinos: Miller, Sivo, Handley, Newman, Lumb, Croft, Connor, Oledzki, Levi, Jenkins, Hankinson, McDonnell, Watkins.

Interchanges: Holroyd, O’Connor, C. Smith, Cassell, Nicholson-Watton.

Referee: Liam Moore.

The Leeds winger’s 25 tries put him nine clear of the next best, Leigh’s Josh Charnley on 16.

In addition to leaving his mark on the game he left plenty on Warrington’s bruised defence, including Josh Thewlis who felt the full force of Sivo as the winger powered past him to score his second.

When Warrington took two points early in the piece, Ewan Irwin kicking the goal, it was presumably in the belief this could have been a tight affair.

But two tries in two minutes from Sivo and Brodie Croft, who has signed a three-year deal with Warrington starting next season, blew that plan out of the water and a third eight minutes later, Harry Newman gathering a high kick as Thewlis hesitated, really put the visitors in command.

Warrington were perhaps a touch unlucky that the Newman try stood with the Leeds centre looking a shade in front of the kicker when the ball went up but had that gone in their favour it would not have made much difference to the result.

Jake Connor kicked two of the conversions to give Leeds a 16-2 half-time lead and the direction of the game was set.

Miller, returning to the side after a three-match suspension was excellent, pulling the strings at full-back.

It was the Australian whose pass put in Chris Hankinson just three minutes after the restart and he then engineered a penalty when blocked by James Bentley two minutes later which Connor converted.

After Sivo secured his hat-trick shortly before the hour, Warrington staged a belated comeback in the final 20 minutes.

Matty Ashton finished off a nice move to give the home side their only try six minutes from time but it was too little too late and proved just a momentary pause in the Leeds celebrations.

Warrington: Thewlis, Ashton, Lindop, Smith, Hopoate, Hayes, Irwin; Thomas, Walker, Byrne, Harrison, Bentley, Currie

Interchanges: Powell, Sipley, Crowther, Tanginoa

Leeds: Miller, Hall, Newman, Handley, Sivo, Croft, Connor; Oledzki, Levi, Palasia, Hankinson, McDonnell, Watkins

Interchanges: Jenkins, O’Connor, Smith, Cassell

Referee: Liam Moore.

Birmingham Panthers earned a convincing 67-43 win at Leeds Rhinos to avoid finishing bottom of the Netball Super League.

In their final fixture of the season, whoever lost knew they would end the campaign bottom of the eight-team table.

The Panthers moved into a 17-11 lead by the end of the first quarter and stretched their advantage further to go in at half-time 31-18 in front.

At 37-19 ahead, the Panthers looked to be cruising, although the hosts reduced the deficit to only 12.

But the visitors quickly ended any home hopes of a fightback by pulling clear once more, with Betsy Creak ending with 49 goals.

This was only the Panthers’ third league win of the season, but they did end with back-to-back victories having defeated London Mavericks 52-51 on Sunday.

The Rhinos began their campaign with a 54-39 away success over the Panthers in February, but that was their only league win of the year.