Wakefield Trinity 18 Leeds Rhinos 20: Hooker Brad Dwyer digs deepest to win it for Leeds

Brad Dwyer had started the match with all his usual effusiveness, zipping away to make the break for the first of Ash Handley’s brace.

And, then, with his tiring side trailing 18-14 and struggling to break down a stubborn Wakefield, the livewire hooker returned from a brief rest to end it with another cutting dash, too.

He picked up from dummy-half and darted through for a try of his own in the 67th minute to essentially win this bruising West Yorkshire derby.

It was hard on Trinity who had beaten Leeds on Thursday and denied what would have been a fourth straight win in just 11 days.

On Dwyer’s exhaustive efforts, Leeds head coach Richard Agar added: “Don’t forget, he’s had Covid as well and recovery from games has been very, very difficult,

“He’s barely missed a game but yesterday at training he could barely move. He could barely lean over to tie his laces he was that sore.

“We gave him the option of not playing but he said he wanted to. We lacked that bit of energy at times the other night and we though Donno (James Donaldson) brings energy all the time and Brad brings it too.

“But James Harrison was magnificent for us as well as Bodene Thompson; he’s such a warrior and been a real inspiration to our young boys during this period.

“This game won’t make any highlight reels but I can’t tell you how proud I am of them for digging in given what they’ve been though.

“And Wakefield have been, too, so massive credit to both sides for slogging it out until the final whistle with the result up in the air until the end.”

The result keeps alive Leeds’ hopes of making the top-four play-offs as they enter what should be the final two weeks of the regular season and they achieved it with back-row Rhyse Martin playing as a makeshift half-back as both Rob Lui and Kruise Leeming went off with head knocks.

Wakefield - who saw young hooker Harry Bowes make an impressive debut as they rung the changes - had chance to level the game late on but opted to run a penalty instead.

Dave Fifita, not for the first time, tried an offload that was never on and they came away with nothing.

Head coach Chris Chester said: “We could probably have had a crack at goal but that’s the confidence this team has at the minute; they felt they could go win the game.

“I was pleased to be able to blood some of these youngsters and Harry Bowes was fantastic for us; he was a real ball of energy and I think the future looks bright when you see these lads.

“But I thought we threw it away. We did a lot of good work in the first half. The frustrating part was we didn’t really make them work hard for any of their tries.

“Then again, considering what both clubs had gone through, it was a great effort from both.”

Given the circumstances, both sides contributed to a decent, entertaining game. Liam Sutcliffe - with regular goalkicker Martin starting on the bench - slotted the conversion to Handley’s opener and when Ryan Hampshire sailed the restart out on the full, Leeds looked like they would strike again.

However, crucially, Lee Kershaw nipped in to intercept Jack Walker’s pass and race over unchallenged from 80m.

Hampshire improved and then his smart pass put Joe Westerman crashing through a gap for a deserved try, the experienced loose forward really showing his worth in this hectic schedule.

Jack Walker did what Hampshire did by putting the restart straight out - a swirling wind caused issues for both sides - and this time Kyle Wood’s precision short kick saw Leeds concede another goal line drop-out.

Agar’s side, though, showed great resilience when defending their own line and, when a Hampshire pass finally went to ground, they turned defence into attack in an instant. Handley - captaining his hometown club for the first time with Luke Gale missing - set off from inside his own 20m area only to see Ben Jones-Bishop chase him down.

Nevertheless, the tackle was not complete and Handley got up to beat off a poor tackle attempt from Innes Senior and finally saw Sutcliffe scramble over.

The centre could not convert to leave Wakefield 12-10 ahead and Jones-Bishop should have helped extend that lead soon after when a wonderful Westerman pass sent him free from deep.

However, with Jack Croft in support, the former Leeds winger looked to dummy past Walker, the full-back who did not take the bait. That looked costly when Thompson - the on-loan Toronto Wolfpack second-row - rolled out of Hampshire’s tackle to slip Sutcliffe clear once more, Handley doing the rest for his 20th try of the season in the 37th minute.

Martin’s conversion put his side 14-12 ahead at the break but Senior claimed Hampshire’s kick to put Trinity back in front.

Then came the Leeds onslaught, though, and eventually Dwyer summoned up enough energy to break them once more.

Wakefield Trinity; A Walker; Jones-Bishop, Croft, Senior, Kershaw; Miller, Hampshire; Green, K Wood, Arona, Westerman, Tanginoa, Aydin. Substitutes: Bowes, Bailey, Fifita, Battye.

Leeds Rhinos: Walker; Handley, L Sutcliffe, Evans, L Briscoe; McLelland, Lui; Seumanufagai, Dwyer, Harrison, Walters, Thompson, Donaldson. Substitutes: Oledzki, Leeming, Martin, O’Connor.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths (Widnes)

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click HERE to subscribe.