Warrington Wolves v Leeds Rhinos, Guardian verdict

Warrington Wolves went from record breakers at Wigan to stinking out the joint against Leeds on Monday night.

The Wire, on a six-match unbeaten run in Super League, were second best in most areas for the vast majority of the 80 minutes.

Sitaleki Akauola and Tom Lineham exit. All pictures by Mike Boden

They have not had any problems scoring points lately, but other than Danny Walker's close-range score from dummy half in response to Leeds' early opener Wolves did not cross again until the visitors' numbers were depleted through yellow cards in the final 10 minutes.

Danny Walker's try against Leeds

Muted celebrations for Josh Charnley's first of a late brace

They had chances from a number of breaks, but the execution was sub-standard and Leeds' scrambling defence was exceptional.

Tom Lineham goes close but the Leeds fefenders stop him short

Both sides were missing some key personnel – Leeds more than The Wire it has to be said – and both had some players out of position – again more Leeds than Wolves – but the visitors looked sharper, hungrier and smarter from the start though the current heavy schedule for teams left them desperately hanging on at the end.

Leeds, who found joy on getting on the outside of two-try Josh Charnley for two first-half scores of their own, were able to capitalise on Warrington's constant fumbling of the ball which hurt Steve Price's side in so many ways.

Wolves put themselves under pressure with extra defence inside their own half, they did not build sustained attacking pressure themselves and they failed to get to a kick in their sets too often meaning a huge chunk of the action was played out at the wrong end of the field.

All of this is a far cry from the good work they have been producing during their winning Super League run since the home let-down against Huddersfield Giants in May and the Challenge Cup semi-final loss to Castleford Tigers in between.

Added to that was Rhinos being better around the ruck and a number of refereeing calls going against Wolves, which seemed to cause no end of frustration on and off the field.

On the back of all this, it felt like no matter what Warrington tried - little was working out for them.

They looked more dangerous when they went forward with some penetration before shifting the ball wide but because of their poor completion rate and high error count they never got to do that often enough.

INTERESTING NOTES:

- Wolves' six-match Super League winning sequence ends

- Wire's first home loss to Leeds since 2018

- Charnley goes level with Widdop on 10 tries this season

MATCH FACTS:

Super League, Round 13

Monday, July 5, 2021

Warrington Wolves...16 Leeds Rhinos...22

Wolves: Josh Thewlis; Josh Charnley, Jake Mamo, Toby King, Tom Lineham; Blake Austin, Stefan Ratchford; Chris Hill, Danny Walker, Mike Cooper, Jack Hughes, Ben Currie, Matt Davis. Subs: Joe Philbin, Rob Butler, Sitaleki Akauola, Daryl Clark

Rhinos: Liam Sutcliffe; Luke Briscoe, Jack Broadbent, Tom Briscoe, Ash Handley; Robert Lui, Kruise Leeming; Mikolaj Oledzki, Brad Dwyer, Matt Prior, Alex Mellor, Rhyse Martin, Bodene Thompson. Subs: James Donaldson, Tom Holdroyd, Konrad Hurrell, Jarrod O'Connor

Scoring: Lui try, 7mins, Martin goal, 0-6; Walker try, 16mins, Ratchford goal, 6-6; Mellor try, Martin goal, 6-12; Handley try, 32mins, Martin goal, 6-18; Martin penalty goal, 36mins, 6-20; Martin penalty goal, 43mins, 6-22; Charnley try, 71mins, 10-22; Charnley try, 78mins, Ratchford goal, 16-22

Penalties: Wolves 5 Rhinos 6

Sin bin: Sutcliffe, 70mins, high tackle; Lui, 75mins, late flop

Referee: Liam Moore

Attendance: 4,000