Leeds Rhinos 20 Wakefield Trinity 38

Tries from James McDonnell, Morgan Gannon, Kruise Leeming and Liam Tindall weren't enough for Leeds Rhinos in the Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge as Rohan Smith's lost out 38-20 to Wakefield Trinity. Continuing the Christmas celebrations with the annual Boxing Day clash, both sides got off to a slow start. In the opening ten minutes, the only action fans got was James Donaldson's yellow card, as the loose forward was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes. The visitors made the breakthrough as former Rhino Jay Pitts opened the scoring halfway through the first period. Mason Lino had been causing Leeds problems and almost darted through, but following a strong drive by Matty Ashurst, Lino and half back partner Lee Gaskell were involved in getting the ball wide for Pitts to get over. Reece Lyne's try looked to be a gut punch to the Rhinos as the centre darted passed Derrell Olpherts to touch down. Leeds kept the faith though and managed an unprecedented fightback before the break. Young guns Mackenzie Turner and Tom Nicholson-Watton took their chance on the Headingley pitch and connected up nicely to get the home side on the front foot. The break continued and James McDonnell got his reward with a try in Leeds colours for the first time. Handley's conversion closed the score by two points but Smith's side weren't done yet. Quick handling caught Wakefield off guard on their edge and Max Simpson timed his pass to perfection to send Liam Tindall away. Trinity winger Lewis Murphy tried his best to cover the Leeds man, but he proved too strong and grounded the ball to give the Rhinos a 10-8 lead. With the clock winding down, Trinity substitute Eddie Battye managed to rumble over the try line to put the visitors back on top; Mark Applegarth's side heading into the break a 14-10 lead.   Leeds needed a response at the start of the second half and were quick to give their fans something to cheer about. An early penalty aided in setting the Rhinos up for Morgan Gannon to score - the youngster finding a hole to slide through. Then in the blink of an eye, it was back to back scores thanks to another great move. New signing Leon Ruan managed to poke his nose through and proved tough for the Wakefield defence to get a hold of, before he offloaded for Kruise Leeming to score in front of the Global Stand. With Leeds rotating their young players on the field and resting experienced names, the remainder of the game belonged to Wakefield who recorded four tries in the final 20 minutes. Pitts had been denied a second try of the game by referee Ben Thaler, but one of Trinity's newest names Renouf Antoni immediately showed the Wakefield fans what they can expect as the prop bounded over from short range. A clever kick over the top of the Leeds defence found Lee Kershaw to add his name to the growing scorers list, before Jordy Crowther took advantage of an offside penalty against the Rhinos to bundle over the white line. Kershaw's second all but sealed the deal, but the red, white and blue saved their best until last. A high bomb was taken acrobatically by Lewis Murphy and the academy product did well to find the try line on his way down to the ground. Gaskell's conversion was simple enough as Wakefield lifted the Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge trophy for the first time since 2016.