First Utility Super League XIX Round 6 Review

Week Six of the First Utility Super League saw St Helens be the only side left with a 100% record as they came from behind to see off Wakefield Wildcats.

Other unbeaten side Leeds Rhinos did not have to get out of second gear as they eased past London Broncos.

Castleford Tiger suffered their first defeat of the season at Salford and in a repeat of last year's Grand Final Wigan once again got the better of a misfiring Warrington Wolves.

Below we have a look at how everything went:

Warrington Wolves 4

Tries: Ormsby

Wigan Warriors 12

Tries: Farrell, Green
Goals: Smith 2

Att: 11,550

Wigan Warriors showed their defensive steel to get past error ridden Warrington Wolves at the H.J. Stadium.

This was the eagerly awaited first meeting, this season, of last year's Grand Final participants as double winners Wigan Warriors were looking for their first win at Warrington for four years.

After making a stuttering start to the season, both sides were looking for win to kick start their campaign.

In ferocious start to the game both teams squared up to each other as no quarter was given, with couple flare ups occurring in which both captains were give a talking too from the referee.

The Warriors settled down the better and built around a good kicking game they took the Lead on 10 minutes when young winger Joe Burgess took Matty Bowen's pass to race clear before sending Liam Farrell over the line.

Matty Smith added the extras to make it 6-0 and Warrington somehow stayed in the game despite dropping pass after pass and having a disjointed attack.

Three minutes before the break, the visitors were given a penalty and Smith kicked the goal as despite their dominance Wigan only led 8-0 at half-time.

Both sides made a mess of the restart as Smith kicked out on the full and Warrington's Gareth O'Brien failing to find touch with the resultant penalty.

The errors continued for the Wolves and they were punished on 50 minutes as good work by Eddy Pettybourne got Farrell charging into space and in support was Blake Green who scored the visitors second try of the night.

Smith's conversion hit the upright and ten minutes later Gene Ormsby gave Warrington a lifeline when he intercepted Bowen's pass, and raced 60 meters to open the home side ‘ account.

Despite having most of the ball for the rest of the game, the Wolves continued to dysfunction offensively as the Warriors held them out to claim their third win of the season.

Leeds Rhinos 54

Tries: Singleton, Hall 3, Achurch, Jones-Bishop 2, Hardaker, Watkins, Burrow
Goals: Hardaker 6, Burrow

London Broncos 6

Tries: Caton-Brown
Goal: Drinkwater

Att: 12,870

Leeds Rhinos maintained their unbeaten start to the season by dispatching the winless London Broncos at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.

Head coach Brian McDermott was able to rest skipper Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock, Tom Briscoe and Brett Delaney as the Rhinos were expected to win at a canter against the London Broncos who had struggled this year.

The result was never in doubt as from the kick-off as the Londoners let the ball go touch-in-goal and seconds later young prop Brad Singleton opened the scoring.

Ryan Hall then celebrated signing a new five year contract early on in the week by helping himself to a quick-fire brace as the hosts led 18-0 after 15 minutes.

Young forward Mike McMeeken came close to scoring for the Broncos but a brilliant last ditch tackle by Zak Hardaker kept him out and this led to more agony for the men from the capital.

Three more tries were to follow for Leeds with Mitch Achurch scoring his first of the season and then Hall completed a first half hat-trick. With the hooter about to sound, for half-time, the ball was quickly moved across the pitch and Ben Jones-Bishop completed a 70-meter move by scoring next to the posts to make it 34-0.

Hardaker continued the one-way traffic by adding the host's seventh try just after the restart, but they would be some joy for the Londoners.

On 49 minutes centre Mason Caton-Brown found a gap in the Leeds defence to score his side's only try of the game. Josh Drinkwater added the goal.

Kallum Watkins missed a walk-in but made amends on 57 minutes by slicing through the Broncos defence to get his name on the scoresheet.

Jones Bishop added another before stand in Skipper Rob Burrow marked his 300^th game by scoring a trademark try in the last minute as the Rhinos cruised to a fifth win of the season to setup next week's mouth-watering game at St Helens.

Catalan Dragons 30

Tries: Taia, Anderson 2, Escare, Whitehead
Goals: Bosc 5

Huddersfield Giants 14

Tries: Grix, Ferres, Broughton
Goals: Brough

Att: 6,600

At the sixth time of asking Catalan Dragons got off the mark with a good win over Huddersfield Giants at the Gilbert Brutus Stadium in Perpignan.

Times had been hard for Laurent Frayssinous French outfit as they had conceded over 30 points in every game they have played this year and in only their second home game of the season they faced a difficult task off getting past last year's league leaders, Huddersfield Giants.

However, from the start it was much like the Dragons side of old as they completely dominated the game built around strong carries and good defence.

Eloi Pelissier and Morgan Escare created a gap for Zeb Taia to charge trough and score next to the posts after 15 minutes.

Four minutes later, it was 12-0 as Thomas Bosc's short ball was taken by Louis Anderson who powered over the line.

Just after the half hour mark, Bosc added a penalty goal as Catalan kept the Giants scoreless in the first half with a 14-0 lead at the break.

Anderson finished off a superb bit of handling as the French side continued their good work after the resumption and on the hour it was effectively game over when Mathias Pala broke away and fed Morgan Escare who raced away to score the hosts fourth try of the night.

Huddersfield did have a better end to the game as Scott Grix finally got them on the scoreboard with 15 minutes left on the clock.

In the final ten minutes of the contest Brett Ferres went over from close range

However, Elliot Whitehead rounded off a superb game by pouncing on Eloi Pelissier's kick through.

There was still time for Jodie Broughton to score a consolation for the Giants but it was the Dragons night who sealed their first win of 2014.

Hull FC 0

Widnes Vikings 7

Tries: Ah Van
Goal: Ah Van
Drop Goal: Gilmore

Att: 10,286

Widnes Vikings claimed an astonishing win by whitewashing Hull FC at the KC Stadium.

After having their unbeaten record come crashing down earth at Leeds last week ,Widnes were looking to get back on track at Hull FC who themselves have had a stuttering start to the season with two wins out of five.

This match was not going to be a spectacular contest as there was a strong wind with continuous driving rain for the whole game.

There were mistakes a plenty and they started in the opening minute as Jordan Rankin spilled the ball on his first carry of the match.

Patrick Ah Van picked the ball up and charged over the line to put the Vikings into an early lead. Danny Tickle missed the conversion, and Widnes led 4-0, but bizarrely this was the only try of a remarkable game.

Despite having a huge amount of possession on the Widnes line, The Black and Whites could not find the killer ball and this was shown by substitute Jordan Thompson who, minutes after coming on to the field burst through and inexplicably spilled the ball in the act of scoring.

The Vikings showed real toughness in defence and kept their 4-0 lead intact at the break and the game continued with the same pattern at the start of the second half.

It was Kirk Yeaman turn to butcher a try, for Hull, as he also managed to drop the ball near the line with virtually no defenders around him.

Finally there was a break thorugh and it came from the boot of Ah Van who made it 6-0 with a penalty goal on the hour.

The errors continued for the hosts and Widnes finally put them out of their misery, none minutes for time as Tom Gilmour kicked the match winning drop goal as the visitors from Cheshire got back to winning ways.

Hull KR 16

Tries: Caro, Keating, Larroyer
Goals: Burns 2

Bradford Bulls 0

Att: 7,008

Hull KR got their first win of 2014 by shutting out Bradford Bulls at the KC Lightstream Stadium Craven Park.

After just one point from, a draw with Huddersfield Giants, Rovers were desperate to open their winning account as they took on bottom of the table Bradford Bulls who were hoping for a third win to get their points deduction back to zero.

Bradford did not have a great start and lost skipper Matt Diskin on 11 minutes which was the time that Rovers took the lead.

Travis Burns' kick caused panic in the Bulls' defence and on hand was Omari Caro to touchdown with Burns adding the extras.

Burns then setup a second score as his break was finished off by fellow halfback partner Kris Keating who dotted down underneath the posts to make it 12-0 which was the score at the interval.

The rain continued to pour in the second half and this made the game scrappy, but to their credit the Bulls defended well but unfortunately offered very little in attack

Eventually the pressure told as on the hour mark Burns again was the provider this time a grubber kick which was pounced on by Kevin Larroyer to score the all important touchdown which ended any hope for the visitors.

There were no further scores in the game as Hull KR sealed a much needed first win of the season, which will please coach Craig Sandercock whose defence remained watertight.

Salford Red Devils 23

Tries: Gleeson, Johnson, Dixon 2
Goals: Mullaney 3
Drop Goal: Chase

Castleford Tigers 16

Tries: Carney, Hauraki, Dorn
Goals: Sneyd 2

Att: 5,823

Salford Red Devils ended Castleford Tigers unbeaten start to the campaign as they got back to winning ways at the A.J. Bell Stadium.

Both teams came into this one with different form. Salford were looking to end their four match slump and they were given a huge boost when big close season signing Rangi Chase was back in the team against his old club after being injured in first game of the campaign.

Castleford were looking to make it six wins on the bounce and continue their 100% record but the Red Devils had other ideas as they took a four minute lead.

Tommy Lee and Tim Smith combined to send Martin Gleeson over for the first try of the game and on 18 minutes it became 10-0 after smart handling led to Greg Johnson finished the move off. Jake Mullaney added the extras.

Needing to score next, the Tigers hit back to get themselves a foothold in the game. Luke Dorn supplied the final pass which saw Justin Carney muscling his way over the whitewash. Marc Sneyd -on a season long loan from Salford- kicked the conversion to make it 10-6 which was the score at Half-time.

Two minutes after the restart, Salford increased their lead when a superb pass from Chase led to Andrew Dixon scoring the home side's third try. Richard Owen spilled a pass from Weller Hauraki with the line open and this was tom prove costly.

Adam Milner was yellow-carded for Castleford and the extra man counted as Dixon made it a double on the hour mark.

Despite being behind 22-6, the Tigers showed their sprit and led by hooker Daryl Clark they hit back with a two try burst.

Hauraki crossed in the corner for the first and when Cas were back to a full compliment Dorn cut inside Mullaney to score a superb try under the posts with Sneyd's conversion cutting the deficit to 22-16 going into the last ten minutes of the game.

However, Chase would have the final say as his one-pointer ended his former team 100% start to the season as Salford claimed their first win in four games.

Wakefield Wildcats 16

Tries: Kirmond, Lyne, McShane
Goals: Sammut 2

St Helens 24

Tries: Jones, Soliola, Dawson, Greenwood, Makinson
Goals: Makinson 2

Att: 5,037

St Helens had to come from behind to deny Wakefield Wildcats at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium to keep up their perfect start to the season.

It was the first time this year that Nathan Brown was without key playmaker Luke Walsh to make up for this he switched Paul Wellens and Jon Wilkin to from a very experience halfback combination.

Wakefield, made the brighter start, with on-loan Leeds centre Jimmy Keinhorst having an early try disallowed for a forward pass but despite their dominance it was Saints who would take the lead.

An offload by ex Wildcats Kyle Amor, sent Jonny Lomax into space and from the next play Josh Jones was on hand to score an unconverted try.

The home side recovered well and led by half-backs Jarrod Sammut and Pita Godinet they hit back to score two touchdowns in the last ten minutes of the first half to lead 10-4 at the break.

Matt Ryan got Danny Kirmond over for the first and then Sammut swooped on a loose pass to get Rhys Lyne over the second on 36 minutes.

Two minutes into the second half if got even better for Wakefield as hooker Paul McShane forced his way over from dummy-half to score his first try for the club since moving from Leeds in the close season to make it 16-4.

However, this brought St Helens into life and they showed their class to hit the Wildcats with a devastating four tries burst in a 15-minute period to effectively win the game

Wellens combined with Wilkin to get second-rower Sia Soliola over in the 47th minute to get things underway and then put in a kick that enabled youngster Matty Dawson to touch down on his debut.

The comeback was soon complete as Wilkin got Joe Greenwood over the line for the third score.

Tommy Makinson kicked his second goal and then collected Wilkin's kick to the corner to score the all important match winning try, which kept Saints 100% record intact to setup next week's mouth-watering clash with the other unbeaten side Leeds Rhinos at Langtree Park.