Leeds 28 Warrington 22: Hardaker returns to help Rhinos deliver grand show

The third game of the Easter season is when the tiring effects of the hectic holiday period are supposed to finally catch up with teams.

Yet champions Leeds Rhinos ignored all of that last night to produce the sort of steely, rugged performance they normally save for when it matters most come Grand Final night.

Perhaps there was not the same intensity as when these sides last met at Old Trafford and, as defeated Warrington coach Tony Smith described, Leeds were “business-like more than terrific.”

But, in the trying circumstances, Brian McDermott’s side demonstrated the sort of class, resilience and composure under pressure which suggests they will be there yet again come the end of this campaign.

They were indebted to two more world-class finishes from England winger Ryan Hall while Zak Hardaker marked his return from a broken thumb with a superb effort at full-back, more so for his usually less-heralded defensive work than anything else.

“He saved our blushes a couple of times so welcome back Zak,” admitted McDermott, after the England international led a terrific rearguard action with two crucial last-ditch tackles.

“He is clearly good with the ball but there was always a bit of wariness whether his thumb would hold up yet he showed he was defensively good as well.”

Hardaker’s England colleague Hall, meanwhile, somehow got the ball down in the tightest of situations in the first and second halves as he underlined his status as the world’s greatest winger.

“If you go through it frame by frame on the video replays, with three or four Warrington players in the shot like they were, and then you pressed pause to ask 100 people if they think he’ll score 100 people would say he’d get banged into touch,” offered McDermott.

“But he does great. It’s great for him and Hally’s great for our team.”

Leeds – without the injured trio of Joe Vickery, Ian Kirke and Brett Delaney plus suspended Ryan Bailey from the side that won in Perpignan a week ago – moved level with Warrington in fourth but still have two games in hand over all their rivals.

The first half was one of those strange affairs you sometimes see this time of year. Leeds completely dominated yet, until impressive hooker Paul McShane burrowed over just before the hooter, somehow only led 16-12.

Warrington scored in the 12th minute after Joel Monaghan picked up Kevin Sinfield’s loose pass and raced 80m, but such was their inferiority they did not start a set in Leeds’s 20 until the 35th minute.

Unfortunately, for the hosts, they scored then, too, through a debatable try from Richie Myler.

Wolves replacement Ben Currie was in the act of juggling a pass forward when Sinfield intervened and perhaps got the last touch before Stefan Ratchford rescued it and the Warrington scrum-half sniped over at the next play.

Brett Hodgson improved both tries but, that aside, it was all Leeds.

Danny McGuire had not crossed the whitewash since February 10 at Castleford, a total of seven games without a four-pointer for Super League’s greatest try-scorer and his worst stretch yet in his prolific 13 year career.

However, the England scrum-half soon ended that when he twisted over from dummy-half in the third minute, Sinfield converting and adding a penalty soon after when Ben Harrison caught Rob Burrow high.

After Monaghan’s breakaway, Hall responded with the first of his brilliant one-handed, mid-air finishes in the corner on 20 minutes although the try’s genesis was all Kallum Watkins.

It is rare nowadays to see tries scored direct from scrums, but when the rangy England centre interjects himself into a static defensive line with such pace, opponents are invariably left rooted.

He sucked too many Wolves in and Joel Moon found Hall who squeezed over.

Sinfield could not convert from wide out, remarkably only his second miss of the entire season. Strangely, though, the Leeds captain would go on to miss three in a row.

Benefiting from a penalty count heavily in their favour, Rhinos secured their third try via Watkins after a fine pass from Carl Ablett only to see Myler snatch that effort back just before the interval.

However, McShane struck and then Hall finished off a free-flowing interchange that involved McGuire three times in the 50th minute. Sinfield rediscovered his kicking accuracy and, though the visitors responded, pepped up by Mickey Higham, Leeds would simply not relinquish their grip.

Hardaker produced a fine tackle to deny Ratchford who, admittedly, did later show great kicking skills to set up Monaghan’s second.

But Sinfield’s penalty kept Leeds out of touch rendering Ryan Atkins’s brilliant team-try, involving countless pairs of hands with the last play, meaningless.

The good news for Warrington is that Lee Briers has been passed fit to resume playing again after a long absence with a neck injury, music to the ears of Smith who admitted his side’s first-half kicking game was “dreadful”.

They also lacked the drive of fellow veteran Adrian Morley while rarely can Michael Monaghan, the usually influential Australian hooker, have been so ineffective.

But Leeds, who achieved this feat with just 16 men considering McDermott did not use rookie prop Brad Singleton off the bench, face London Broncos on Friday confident their title defence is running more than smoothly.

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Leeds Rhinos: Hardaker; Watkins, Ablett, Moon, Hall; Sinfield, McGuire; Leuluai, Burrow, Peacock, Ward, Achurch, Jones-Buchanan. Substitutes: Clarkson, Singleton, McShane, Moore.

Warrington Wolves: Hodgson; Riley, Atkins, Grix, J Monaghan; Ratchford, Myler; Hill, M Monaghan, Cooper, Waterhouse, Westwood, Harrison. Substitutes: Carvell, Higham, Wood, Currie.

Referee: J Child (Dewsbury).