Leeds Rhinos 14 Wigan Warriors 18

A tough second half saw Leeds Rhinos lose grip on a ten point lead to be knocked out by Wigan Warriors, who claimed a 18-14 result in round six of the Betfred Challenge Cup.

Off the back of beating the Warriors with a spectacular second half performance in Super League, both sides made changes for the Cup tie. Leeds welcomed back Aidan Sezer and James McDonnell in place of Blake Austin and James Bentley. Derrell Olpherts also came back into the fold on the wing after his appearance in the reserves. Sezer was partnered by Morgan Gannon in the halves as the youngster took up the role he played during the club’s pre-season friendlies.

Headingley was bouncing from kick off as both sets of fans got into the spirit of the Cup. Leeds were particularly buoyed by the home support and had the best of the opening ten minutes, in stark contrast to the week before at the DW Stadium. Off the back of an error from Abbas Miski, Nene Macdonald and Morgan Gannon took inspired runs to try and break through the Wigan defence but with no luck.

Cameron Smith looked to all but score too, but defence from Wigan full back Bevan French denied the loose forward a glorious opportunity.

Finally the deadlock was broken as Tom Holroyd powered his way over from an inspired run. Wigan lost Ethan Havard to injury and with a forward missing, the visitor’s defensive line couldn’t prevent a rampaging Tom Holroyd from getting himself to the white line. Rhyse Martin’s conversion made the score 6-0 to Leeds after ten minutes.

The half wasn’t short of chances as both sides fought out a tough arm wrestle. After Macdonald had been cut down short of the line, Wigan came to life off the back of a break from Jake Wardle. The returning Liam Marshall gave up a big opportunity as the winger’s pass inside for Bevan French was clearly forward. Wardle was also denied by the referee for a forward pass before French once again came up short, this time from a Harry Smith.

Sensing Wigan were growing into the tie, an offside penalty against Wigan’s Smith saw Martin elect to kick for goal and take the score to eight points.

Soon after the score was up to 14 points thanks to Harry Newman, who scored a sensational Cup try. Sezer spotted the initial gap in the defence to poke his nose through, before the half back offloaded for Newman to race free and beat French to score, despite having support on either side of him.

French got his own back as the full back beat Leeds’ slide defence to get the visitors on the score board as the sides headed back into the dressing rooms with the score 14-4 in Leeds’ favour.

Wigan were quick to the second half started as a break by Liam Farrell saw the back rower pass back inside for French to score under the posts. Smith’s conversion closed the score to four points.

The Warriors soon levelled the score with Junior Nsemba, who crashed onto Smith’s ball to quieten the Headingley crowd. With the pressure of taking the lead on his shoulder, Smith couldn’t convert to keep the score locked at 14-14.

McDonnell and Ryan Hampshire traded blows as both sides came close to getting their side more points, but it was the Warriors that took the lead. Myler was judged to have knocked on a high bomb under pressure from French, and straight from the scrum, Wardle ghosted his way over to put the Warriors head by four points. 

With time running out, Leeds had a huge opportunity to close the score line as Newman made another break through the defence but with Myler on his shoulder, the centre chose to keep hold of the ball and French was there to make the tackle.

The Rhinos were left to rue to chance as time expired, the Warriors progressing with a 18-14 result.