STEVE Price says Jack Hughes’ first-half yellow card was the catalyst for their opening-day victory over Leeds Rhinos.

The game was scoreless when Hughes was sin-binned for tackling Konrad Hurrell without the ball but The Wire were 8-0 up by the time he returned.

Stefan Ratchford opened the scoring while the hosts were down to 12 men before Josh Charnley and Daryl Clark crossed put them in a commanding position at the break.

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Blake Austin ended the game as a contest with a try on his Super League debut after the break, making Stevie Ward’s late consolation immaterial.

Leeds’ try came when The Wire were once again down to 12 men as Toby King saw yellow for a dangerous tackle.

The visitors had the prime opportunity to make the most of an encouraging start when Hughes left the field, but Price was delighted it had the opposite effect.

“The Jack Hughes sin-binning sparked us into life,” he said.

“I thought it was warranted – a fair call from the referee.

“We got in the groove and started to play some really aggressive football. We scored shortly after that.

“To go to 20-0 at half time, I thought we played some good footy and scored some really good tries.

“It was a really good first hit-out. We were strong in a lot of areas.

“I’m very pleased with the debutants out there today. I thought Blake had some really good moments throughout the game.

“There were a couple of line breaks he created in the first half that we couldn’t quite finish off but he’s only going to get better.”

Full video reaction above