ESL Roundup

Leeds consolidated their grip on the Super League on Sunday with a 46-28 win over Wakefield, while Hull underlined their claims for a second place finish with a hard-earned 25-14 victory over champions Bradford.

Leeds stand-off Danny McGuire notched a new Super League record as he took his try tally to 29 for the season, breaking Paul Newlove's record set in 1996 when the international centre was at St Helens.

Wakefield battled hard throughout and led for a brief period in the first half, but once Leeds hit their stride there was no way back for a Wildcats side that have now lost 12 games in a row to the Rhinos.

Leeds are now four points clear of Hull and six ahead of third-placed St Helens. _____ London 22-20 Wigan London 22 (10) Tries: O'Halloran, Trindall, Wells, Moran Goals: Sykes 3 Wigan 20 (12) Try:Robinson, Radlinski, Aspinwall Goals: Farrell 4 London Broncos caused the shock of the season with the narrow win over high-flying Warriors on Sunday. Mark O'Halloran, Steve Trindall and Jon Wells all touched down as they put the Warriors under pressure from the start.

But it was Dennis Moran's try five minutes from time that edged victory and ended a 12-match winless streak.

The triumph gave them a vital lifeline in their bid for Super League survival as they move three points clear of bottom-of-the-table Castleford.

The Warriors who took opening lead in the match when Andrew Farrell, starting at prop, provided the pass for Luke Robinson to touch down in the 24th minute.

But London's hard work paid off three minutes later when O'Halloran climbed high to collect Moran's bomb.

Terry Newton and Farrell then sent over Kris Radlinski to put Wigan ahead again before Trindall's try and Paul Sykes' goal reduced the gap to just two points at the stroke of half-time.

Just five minutes after the break, Farrell kicked a 35-metre penalty, but the Broncos soon took the lead when, after 61 minutes, the waspish Moran set up Jon Wells to touch down with Sykes adding his second goal.

The lead only lasted six minutes as Robinson ducked under an attempted tackle before getting off a pass to the unmarked Martin Aspinwall with Farrell kicking the goal.

Five minutes from time Moran spotted a hole in the Warriors' back line and raced through it before touching down under the posts to level the scores.

Sykes' goal gave the Broncos a narrow two-point lead which they never surrendered and could secure their top-flight future.

London: Wells, Greenwood, O'Halloran, Roy, Kirkpatrick, Sykes, Moran, Moore, Budworth, Stephenson, Retchless, Hart, Purdham. Replacements: Trindall, Stringer, Highton, Jackson.

Wigan: Radlinski, Dallas, Aspinwall, Connolly, Carney, O'Loughlin, Robinson, Hargreaves, Newton, Farrell, Wild, Tickle, Hock. Replacements: Prescott, M. Smith, Hodgson, Brown. _______ Hull 25-14 Bradford

Hull 25 (6) Tries: Barnett Jnr, Briscoe, Horne, Dowes Goals: Cooke 4 Drop: Whiting Bulls 14 (8) Tries: Hape, Paul Goals: Deacon 3 Att: 14,124 Hull opened up a four-point gap over Bradford as they maintained their pursuit of Super League leaders Leeds. Shaun McRae's side led through a try from Richie Barnett Jnr but Shontayne Hape's try put the Bulls 8-6 ahead.

But Hull stung the visitors with two quick-fire tries from Shaun Briscoe and Graeme Horne on the resumption.

Robbie Paul's try brought it back to 18-14 but prop Ewan Dowes crashed over for the clinching try before Richard Whiting's late drop goal sealed it.

"Bradford threw a lot at us in the first half but I thought we coped with it well," said McRae. Our defence was pretty good throughout."

"We didn't panic at half-time," added man-of-the-match Paul Cooke, who kicked four goals.

"We spoke about completing our sets better in the second half and we got our just rewards."

Hull, high on confidence after winning their previous four games, took the game to the Bulls from the kick-off.

After Bradford loose forward Lee Radford had a try disallowed for a forward pass, the hosts claimed the lead after five minutes when Barnett finished off a superb handling move.

Cooke converted but the stand-off cost his side a second try midway through the first half when he patted the ball into Leon Pryce's arms after Colin Best had driven close to the line.

The Bulls got themselves on the scoreboard with a Paul Deacon penalty after 27 minutes and Hull's defence finally cracked five minutes before the interval.

Iestyn Harris found space to charge deep into Hull territory and set Pryce away and although Stuart Reardon was caught by Barnett, the Bulls maintained the momentum to send Hape over.

Deacon's conversion put the Bulls 8-6 up at half-time but Hull reclaimed the lead when Cooke opened up the defence and found Briscoe, who also ran in four tries when Hull won at Odsal in April.

A Briscoe counter attack might have led to another try only for second row Shayne McMenemy to lose control of the ball over the line.

But Hull's third score was not long in coming as a poor Paul pass went to ground and Horne sprinted away from halfway to touch down.

Paul made instant amends when he picked up a loose ball to touch down after Pryce had the ball knocked from his arms in a tackle.

Deacon's goal reduced the deficit to four points but the Bulls fightback was swiftly ended as Dowes weaved his way in from a Paul King pass.

Cooke landed his fourth conversion before Whiting wrapped up victory

Hull: Briscoe, Best, Yeaman, Whiting, Barnett Jnr, Cooke, R. Horne, Dowes, Swain, King, McMenemy, McNicholas, Smith. Replacements: G. Horne, Lupton, Higgins, Scruton.

Bradford: Reardon, K. Pryce, L. Pryce, Hape, Vainikolo, Harris, Deacon, Anderson, Paul, Fielden, Swann, Peacock, Radford. Replacements: Bridge, Langley, Vagana, Parker. ____ Warrington 46-20 Salford Warrington 46 (30) Tries: Hulse 2, Forshaw, Burns 2, Westwood, Appo, Guisset Goals: Briers 7 Salford 20 (6) Try:McGuinness, McAvoy, Johnson, Littler Goals: Charles 2 Warrington dazzled with an eight-try display over Salford to notch up their second successive win on Sunday. Full-back Gary Hulse and centre Darren Burns both touched down twice as Warrington romped to an easy victory.

Mike Forshaw, Ben Westwood, Graham Appo and Jerome Guisset also scored to deny Salford the win they needed to move closer to Super League survival.

Inspirational Lee Briers added to their misery, booting seven goals from eight attempts in front of 8,641 fans.

But it was Salford who got on the scoresheet first with stand-off Kevin McGuinness' try after 13 minutes, duly converted by Chris Charles.

But Salford were then rocked by five Warrington tries in 20 minutes with forward Gareth Haggerty needlessly conceding penalties which led to two of the touchdowns.

Hulse levelled the scores in the 19th minute with his first try.

Burns finished off a superb move involving Mike Wainwright and Hulse for another touchdown.

Brent Grose then created the chance for Ben Westwood to go over with Burns adding a second from Briers' long pass just before the interval. Salford cut the gap to 30-16 with tries from Nathan McAvoy and Andy Johnson

But Warrington took charge again when Danny Lima burst through for Hulse to go over for his second try on the hour.

Warrington added further tries from Appo and Guisset sandwiched by a Stuart Littler effort for Salford to ensure victory for the home side.

Warrington: Hulse, Gaskell, Burns, Grose, Westwood, Briers, Appo, Lima, Clarke, Leikvoll, P. Wood, Wainwright, Forshaw. Replacements: Gleeson, Guisset, Stevens, Sibbit.

Salford: Caine, McAvoy, Stewart, Littler, Kirk, McGuinness, Fitzpatrick, Baynes, Alker, Highton, Shipway, Coley, Charles. Replacements: Johnson, Haggerty, Jonkers, Rutgerson. ____ Castleford 42-8 Widnes Castleford 42 (26) Tries: Davis, Mellor 2, M. Smith, Hudson, Maloney, Godwin, Rogers Goals: Godwin 5 Widnes 8 (2) Try: Millard Goals: Myler 2 Castleford breathed new life into their season of struggle by hammering Widnes in an eight-try display at The Jungle. Veteran half-back Brad Davies scored the Tigers' first try and had a hand in five others as Cas belied their place at the bottom of the Super League.

Castleford now trail London by just a point and are four behind Widnes, whose search for a new coach received added impetus after a poor performance.

The Vikings scored through hooker Shane Millard, but rarely troubled the hosts.

The Tigers had the game sewn up by half-time after dominating the first 40 minutes and outscoring the Vikings by five tries to nil.

They gained the upper hand in the forward battle, with Andy Lynch and Michael Smith leading the way, gaving Davis a platform to display his attacking skills.

He scored after only two minutes, slicing through a defence pulled out of position by a rampaging run from skipper Ryan Hudson.

Widnes pulled two points back with a Stephen Myler penalty to make it 6-2 but they badly missed injured playmaker Jules O'Neill.

Cas doubled their lead on 21 minutes when Smith took Davis' cut-out pass and drew the defence to send winger Paul Mellor over.

Mellor then palmed back a high kick from Jon Hepworth into the hands of Davis for Smith to finish off.

Francis Maloney then squeezed over at the corner just before the break after taking another pass from Davis.

Widnes briefly threatened a comeback when Millard forced his way over from dummy half for a converted try.

But Davis produced an array of tactical kicks to keep his side on top.

It was from his pass that full-back Damien Gibson carved out an opening for Mellor to grab his second try on 55 minutes to make the game safe.

Hooker Wayne Godwin then jinked his way over for a try and kicked his fifth goal from eight attempts.

Widnes' woe was compounded by the late sin-binning of Paul Atcheson for delaying tactics and Castleford took advantage to score again through Darren Rogers.

Castleford: Gibson, Saxton, Tony, Rogers, Mellor, Davis, Maloney, Tookey, Godwin, Lynch, M Smith, Harland, Hudson. Replacements: Sykes, Greenhill, Hepworth, B. Smith. Widnes: Atcheson, Devlin, Bird, Hughes, Giles, S Myler, Peters, Hobson, Millard, Mills, Hay, Frame, Finnigan. Replacements: McCurrie, Wozniak, Whitaker, Middlehurst. ____ St Helens 50-10 Huddersfield St Helens 50 (28) Tries: Albert, Stankevitch 2, Cunningham, Mason, Talau 2, Hooper, Gardner Goals: Hooper 7 Huddersfield 10 (0) Tries: Smith, St Hilaire Goal: Costin St Helens made amends for last week's 70-0 thrashing at Leeds with a strong display against Huddersfield. They scored five tries in the first half, and another four after the break to reclaim third place in the table.

Trailing 28-0 at half-time, the Giants rallied briefly but have now conceded 146 points in three meetings with St Helens this season.

They were hampered by the loss of full-back Paul Reilly with a leg injury, but never really troubled the hosts.

Any danger of a third successive Saints loss receded in the seventh minute when Darren Albert used an overlap on the right to dummy his way over.

John Stankevitch and Keith Mason both crashed through flimsy tackling to score tries and hooker Keiron Cunningham managed a trademark score from dummy half.

Huddersfield had a try from winger Marcus St Hilaire disallowed for a forward pass and centre Brandon Costin knocked on after successfully pursuing Paul March's kick to the line.

The Giants' first-half horror show was summed up just before the break when Saints centre Willie Talau picked up a dropped pass to race 60 metres for the easiest of tries.

Huddersfield improved considerably in the second half, scoring a well-worked try from Smith just two minutes after the re-start, converted by Costin.

The home side went 23 minutes without adding to their half-time score but they pulled away in the final quarter with four further tries.

Talau finished off a sparkling handling move to claim his second and Jason Hooper picked up a James Roby pass by his boots to touch down.

Cunningham and Lee Gilmour then combined superbly to get winger Ade Gardner over and Stankevitch grabbed his second, with St Hilaire briefly stemming the onslaught with a consolation try.

Hooper proved to be a useful third-choice goalkicker in the absence of Sean Long and Paul Sculthorpe, succeeding with seven of his nine conversions.

St Helens: Wellens, Hardman, Albert, Talau, Gardner, Hooper, J. Roby, Fozzard, Cunningham, Edmondson, Stankevitch, Bennett, Gilmour. Replacements: Mason, Wilkin, Feaunati, Fa'asavalu. Huddersfield: Reilly, Donlan, Evans, Bailey, St Hilaire, Costin, March, Fleary, Joseph, Crabtree, Smith, Jones, Roarty. Replacements: Penkywicz, Gannon, Morrison, Grayshon.