Warrington Wolves 30 Leeds Rhinos 37: Sinfield's kicking provides platform for Rhinos' win

Patched-up Rhinos trailed 20-12 at the break but deserved to edge victory in a 12-try spectacular.

It was only Warrington's second home defeat of the season after losing to table-toppers Wigan in February.

Both clubs scored six tries but Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield crucially landed all six goals from six attempts and a long-range drop-goal six minutes from time.

Warrington's Briers missed four of his seven shots to leave the Wolves four points behind Wigan.

Leeds, who slumped to a shock 32-26 home defeat by Crusaders the previous week, went into the game without half a dozen regulars but it hardly showed.

Kylie Leuluai, Matt Diskin and Brent Webb all face six-week lay-offs to join Rob Burrow, Ali Lauitiiti and Luke Burgess on the sidelines.

Warrington were boosted by the return of Richie Mathers against his old club, after missing the win at Bradford, and Vinnie Anderson.

Wolves boss Tony Smith has still beaten Leeds only once in his coaching career – when the Australian was in charge of Huddersfield seven years ago.

Smith's side made a superb start with Michael Monaghan and Ben Westwood combining for Matt King to charge over.

Jamie Peacock's thundering tackle was then needed to deny Monaghan when the Warrington hooker hesitated following a midfield burst. But Leeds took the lead with a sizzling solo effort from Keith Senior.

The 34-year-old centre turned back the clock by brushing off Adrian Morley and then side-stepping Mathers on a 50-metre sprint for only his second try in the last 10 games.

Warrington's mistakes could have proved costly with Chris Riley spilling Ryan Atkins's pass with a clear run to the line but Chris Bridge's inventiveness brought a try for Hicks to edge the Wolves ahead 8-6.

David Solomona's handling skills created Ryan Atkins's try after the Kiwi sold Brett Delaney a dummy but Briers missed his third conversion.

Leeds levelled at 12-12 with Greg Eastwood bursting on to Danny McGuire's short pass for his first Super League try since arriving from Canterbury with Sinfield adding his second goal.

Briers made amends for his poor marksmanship with his smart inside pass putting Hicks over for his second try and then finally landed a conversion to fire Warrington ahead 18-12. Solomona's craft earned Warrington a penalty for Briers to make it 20-12 at the break.

But when Briers failed to make 10 metres with the restart Leeds took advantage for Scott Donald to leap high and gather Sinfield's kick with the Rhinos captain adding the touchline conversion.

King's second try, goaled by Briers, restored the advantage but, in a ding-dong affair, Danny Buderus darted over from dummy-half to make it 26-24.

Warrington were rocked when Ryan Hall, with his thigh heavily strapped, took McGuire's pass with Sinfield's touchline conversion firing Leeds ahead 30-26.

The fans lapped up the entertainment with Riley finishing off a mesmerising move to go over in the corner and level again but Briers once more missed the difficult goal attempt.

McGuire's brilliant long-range try and Sinfield's sixth conversion made it 36-30.

Sinfield then booted a 45-metre drop-goal to give his side a valuable seven-point cushion – and they held on for a hard-fought win.

Leeds assistant coach Francis Cummins praised the predatory instincts of scrum-half McGuire after their victory. Cummins said: "Danny has proved time and time again that he reads the game so well and pops up in the right place at the right time.

"He and Warrington full-back Richie Mathers go back a long way and Richie knew Danny had a few tricks in his pocket and didn't quite know which one he was going to pull out, and he beat him with a bit of pace.

"I don't think either ourselves or Warrington were at our best but it was a step in the right direction for us and a big confidence booster.

"Every team goes through blips in a season but the effort the team put in today shows things can happen for us."

Warrington coach Smith believes his side will need to toughen up if they hope to come out on top in the big games.

The Wolves have now lost to the Rhinos on two occasions this season and have also been beaten by fellow title challengers St Helens and Wigan.

Smith said: "We're disappointed with the result and I thought Leeds deserved it, but we will toughen up and we will have to in these sorts of games or you become the nearly team.

"You should win a game of rugby league scoring 30 points and I loved some of the tries we scored and some of the attacking play on show. But defensively we obviously leaked too many. We also gave too many penalties away and that hurts you in games."

Warrington: Mathers, Hicks, King, Atkins, Riley, Bridge, Briers, Morley, Monaghan, Harrison, L. Anderson, Westwood, Grix. Substitutes: Higham, Wood, V. Anderson, Solomona.

Leeds Rhinos: Smith, Donald, Delaney, Senior, Hall, Sinfield, McGuire, Bailey, Buderus, Peacock, Eastwood, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett. Substitutes: Kirke, Pitts, Ambler, McShane.

Referee: James Child (Dewsbury).