Leeds Rhinos 42 Wakefield Trinity 20: Experience sees Rhinos prevail at expense of gallant Wildcats

Just after the hour mark on Saturday night, their seven-game winning run looked more than capable of being extended at the expense of the defending champions.

Trailing just 18-16, they had heroically defended three consecutive sets on their own line and, the romanticists among some of the 9,044 crowd will have hoped such stirring Trinity resolve would be rewarded with a famous finish.

Then up went a miscued Danny McGuire kick, which former Rhino Mathers understandably thought would go safely dead.

However, a wicked bounce saw the Wakefield full-back need to take possession with his back to play and, just as he did, the hulking figure of Bailey slammed straight into him with a hit which reverberated around Headingley Carnegie.

It secured Leeds’s third drop-out of the half and this time there would be no escape for breathless Trinity.

Enigmatic hooker Rob Burrow, whose brilliant solo try proved crucial in defining Leeds’s Old Trafford triumph win last season, was the catalyst again.

His typically jinking dart up Wakefield’s middle made the crucial crack before his old partner-in-crime McGuire – back after missing four games through injury – emerged on his shoulder to dive over, in doing so, becoming Super League’s outright greatest-ever try scorer with a 200th touchdown.

It was a fitting way to decide the destiny of this enthralling game. With 10 Grand Final winners rings between that pair alone, it illustrated just how important experience and nous really is; for all Wakefield’s obvious courage and guile, Leeds have a gilded history of making it count in play-off encounters.

The gallant visitors just lacked that ruthless efficiency when it mattered most, shown when Danny Washbrook bombed a clear chance in the 70th minute.

Ali Lauitiiti, one of three ex-Rhino title winners who scored for Trinity, had just crossed to bring it back to 30-20 and, when the excellent scrum-half Tim Smith slipped Washbrook racing through, the supporting Ben Cockayne seemed certain to cross.

But workaholic loose forward Washbrook lost all his composure as Rhinos full-back Zak Hardaker closed and delivered an awful ball which left his team-mate no chance and gutted coach Richard Agar burying his head in his hands.

Instead, Leeds winger Ben Jones-Bishop added a couple of late tries, benefiting from the princely Kallum Watkins’s silky assists, to complete his hat-trick and the Rhinos were on their way to Perpignan for Friday’s next eliminator against Catalan.

There has to be a nod to coach Brian McDermott, too, given some supporters were increasingly perplexed as to why replacement hooker Shaun Lunt remained on the bench.

The simple reason was Burrow – who scored twice to put them 
12-10 up at half-time – remained so dangerous; he grew as the game evolved rather than tired and, too often, Wakefield had no answer to his relentless probing.

There had been concerns that inexperienced Wildcats, having surged into eighth spot with their best winning run since 1976, would be spent by the time they arrived at Headingley but those fears soon proved unfounded.

All the facets of their recent form were there on Saturday night – power up front from Andy Raleigh and Kyle Amor, the perpetual industry of wingers Peter Fox and Cockayne, Paul Sykes’s telling boot and Tim Smith’s sheer brilliance with the ball in hand.

Leeds immediately knew they were in a contest, met the challenge head on and it made for the best play-off of the weekend.

Granted, it would be easy to bemoan poor defence when it comes to all four tries scored in that first half but it is better to instead praise the attacking prowess of two supreme talents.

Tim Smith’s passing has been exquisite of late. He put over Cockayne, who has benefited so handsomely from the Australian’s tailored service this year, with a fired pass that cut out two hapless Leeds defenders in the 15th minute.

He seemed to go missing for a short while before sauntering onto the short side on halfway and delivering another perfect pass which fractured Leeds just as effortlessly for Lee Smith to exchange passes with Cockayne and score.

For Tim Smith in Wakefield colours, read Watkins in Leeds. The elegant centre’s breathtaking footwork and searing pace – often from a standing start – was unplayable, his thrilling breaks setting up both Burrow tries although the first was from a clear forward pass.

The next came on the stroke of half-time, but Wakefield were not deterred and took the lead for a third time just 84 seconds after the restart when Mathers latched onto Frankie Mariano’s break.

Washbrook – the top tackler in Super League – then made an incredulous chase down of England winger Ryan Hall but it was all in vain. Sinfield showed vision at the next play to find unmarked Jones-Bishop with a cross-field kick and Leeds, who later saw Hardaker score a stunning 95m try, would never look back.

Leeds Rhinos: Hardaker; Jones-Bishop, Watkins, Ablett, Hall; Sinfield, McGuire; Leuluai, Burrow, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Delaney, Bailey. Substitutes: Lunt, Griffin, Ward, Clarkson.

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Mathers; Fox, Collis, L Smith, Cocakyne; Sykes, T Smith; Amor, Ellis, Raleigh, Lauitiiti, Kirmond, Washbrook. Substitutes: Wood, Mariano, Wilkes, Johnson.

Referee: S Ganson (St Helens).