Warrington Wolves 40 Leeds Rhinos 24: Smith delighted at seeing off former club Leeds

The academy international got his chance of a first Super League start after two substitute appearances when Ryan Atkins pulled out with a knee strain and he played a starring role as the Wolves coasted to a seven-try victory.

“I’m not surprised,” said Smith. “He’s a good boy. We’ve been a bit excited by him for some time.

“We’ve been biding our time with him but he got his opportunity to come in late in the week and, if he suffers with nerves, he certainly doesn’t show it.”

Fresh from their long-awaited win over St Helens, Warrington made a sluggish start, in which they fell 8-0 behind, and also lost captain Adrian Morley but they found their form to run in 34 unanswered points before fading in the last 10 minutes.

“When you’re down to less than 17 at half-time, you are going to get run down a little bit so I’m not bothered about the points we conceded at the end,” said Smith. “I’m very pleased. It was a good performance. We were up against a very good team two weeks running and sometimes you can be a bit flat after playing St Helens but I thought we looked sharp and fresh. I am delighted with their efforts in putting that many points on a team like Leeds.”

Leeds coach Brian McDermott, critical of his side’s defensive efforts in their surprise home defeat by Harlequins a week earlier, thought there was an improvement but admitted they paid the price for a series of errors.

“We weren’t good enough with the ball,” he said. “We didn’t hold onto it. We’ve got to concede we’re not doing the basics well enough.

“I thought we were a bit better defensively and we played against a team who were very good with the ball. You’ve got to give the Warrington attack a lot of credit. Warrington were outstanding in defence but we didn’t attack their line in the first half.”

The Rhinos lost hooker Danny Buderus early in the game with a broken nose that had to be reset and captain Kevin Sinfield was less effective after taking a heavy blow late in the first half.

Warrington Wolves: Hodgson, Riley, Blythe, Evans, J. Monaghan, Briers, Myler, Morley, M. Monaghan, Carvell, Westwood, Solomona, Harrison. Substitutes: Higham, Clarke, Wood, Grix.

Leeds Rhinos: Webb, Smith, Watkins, Senior, Hall, Sinfield, Burrow, Burgess, Buderus, Jones-Buchanan, Lauitiiti, Hauraki, Ablett. Substitutes: Cross, Kirke, Clarkson, Jones-Bishop.

Referee: S Ganson (England).