Wigan Warriors 18 Leeds Rhinos 40

An exceptional second-half display saw a twelve-man Leeds Rhinos beat Wigan Warriors 40-18 in Round 12 of the Betfred Super League, having gone into the break eight points behind.

Harry Newman’s two interception tries were the icing on the cake for the visitors to the DW Stadium, who ran riot with further second-half scores from Tom Holroyd, Cam Smith, Richie Myler, Liam Tindall and Rhyse Martin.

With a number of players still on the sidelines coming into the game, Rohan Smith shifted his lineup as Richie Myler partnered Blake Austin in the halves. Ash Handley dropped into full back, seeing Liam Tindall started on the wing, and Zane Tetevano started in the back row in the absence of James McDonnell.

James Donaldson returned to the bench for his first appearance since the away win over St Helens, as the forward joined Tom Holroyd, Justin Sangare and Morgan Gannon among the substitutes. Mikolaj Oledzki and Nene Macdonald also marked their 150^th career appearances against Wigan.

Wigan made the most of Leeds’ early errors and camped themselves on the Rhinos try line early on in the first half. Despite managing the likes of Bevan French and Wigan’s England internationals, Leeds’ resolve finally cracked when Abbas Miski scored in the corner to get the game’s first points.

The Rhinos lost James Bentley for the remainder of the game after a head knock with Miski, before French broke the Leeds line again from a scrum play to give the Warriors a ten-point lead. The visitors’ night took a turn too when a mix-up between Ash Handley and Cam Smith saw the referee penalise Handley for an accidental offside and Wigan’s Smith converted the extras to make the score 14-0.

Nevertheless, Leeds kept up their spirits and got lucky when Smith’s pass wide was read well by Harry Newman, who picked off the ball to race away and score his first of two interception tries. Martin’s conversion made the score 14-6 as the half approached its close, but there was one final twist as Zane Tetevano was shown a red card for a late shot on Smith to take Leeds down to twelve men with 40 minutes to go.

For all the pressure they endured in the first half, a different Leeds side came out to play in the second to seal an emphatic win.

Alam bells started to ring for the home side when Gannon was released into the backfield and Austin was eventually held up short of the try line. As the referee waved for a set restart, the Rhinos kept knocking on the door before Tom Holroyd powered his way over on a short crash ball to draw the score to within two points.

No sooner had they scored once, the Rhinos were in again with Richie Myler. A high bomb wasn’t dealt with by the Wigan defence and as O’Connor batted the loose ball back to Smith, the loose forward timed his pass well to put Myler in to score and put the away side ahead, after confirmation from the video referee.

Wigan needed to halt the Rhinos attack and Iain Thornley’s effort kept the game in the balance, as the Warriors exposed the hole that Tetevano would have filled in the Leeds defence. Smith couldn’t convert as the score stayed as a stalemate.

Nobody expected what was to come in the final 20 minutes though, as another Newman interception try kickstarted Leeds attack again. Justin Sangare had a great impact off the bench as his offload on the last tackle helped Smith and Austin set up Martin to give Leeds breathing space on the score board, before Smith went from try assister to try scorer, thanks to half back Blake Austin, who was a key catalyst in the Rhinos’ second half success, to put the loose forward under the posts. Martin’s conversion made the score 34-18 to all but end the game with ten minutes remaining.

Wigan went down to twelve men for the last five minutes when a strong run from Sam Lisone saw French commit a personal foul as the Leeds prop tried to play the ball and the full back ten minutes in the sin bin. The Rhinos refused to run the clock down with seconds remaining and capped off the result; Tindall collected Cade Cust’s poor pass to sprint away and conclude the scoring in a mad second half at the DW Stadium.

The two sides face off again at Headingley in the sixth round of the Betfred Challenge Cup next Saturday (KO 2.30pm). Get your tickets here.