Super League Round 18 Review

Super League XVIII Round 18 review by Simon Reuben

Leeds Rhinos                          42

Tries:   Minns, Keinhorst 3, Hardaker,

            Kirke, Moon

Goals:  Sinfield 7

Castleford Tigers                    24

Tries:   Hauraki, Tansey 2, Huby

Goals:  Ellis 4

Att:      17,035

Leeds Rhinos ended their four match loosing run by seeing off a spirited Castleford Tigers at Headingley Carnegie Stadium.

The Rhinos, who broke the news that Danny McGuire would miss the rest of the season with a broken fibula, gave a debut to youngster Thomas Minns and welcomed back veteran prop Jamie Peacock. Castleford, who were without the suspended Justin Carney, were seeking the league double after beaten their opponents in round 2.

It was Leeds who got the start they wanted and it was a fairy tale for Minns after Rob Burrow created the position for Paul McShane to get the young winger over for a debut unconverted try.

Led by the influential Rangi Chase, the Tigers hit back when former Rhino Weller Hauraki dummied his way over the line. Jamie Ellis added the goal to make it 6-4.

The Champions then hit back and moved into a 16-6 lead with a quick-fire two try burst. Once again Burrow was the provider as he got German international Jimmy Keinhorst through a gap to score his on first appearance for the Rhinos since February.

Zak Hardaker then showed his class by going through a gap and outpacing Jordan Tansey on a 70-meter run to the line. Kevin Sinfield converted both tries.

Four minutes before the break Daryl Clark picked up a loose ball and raced into space to send Tansey over as Castleford were back in the game trailing 16-12.

Five minutes into the second half, prop Grant Millington broke from deep inside his own half and in support was Tansey to score his second of the game as the visitors retook the lead 18-16.

In this entertaining contest, Leeds struck back again as winger Ryan Hall palmed Sinfield's pinpoint kick to the corner and Keinhorst scored his second and then in a carbon copy effort the Centre completed his hat-trick on 62-minutes as the host’s lead went out to 28-18.

Once again, the spirited Tigers would not go away and Craig Huby gave his side renewed hope by touching down next to the posts.

However, the Rhinos wrapped up the win with two tries in the final ten minutes from Ian Kirke and Joel Moon.

Hull KR                                  35

Tries:   Burns 2, Brown 2, Horne,

            Mika

Goals:  Dobson 5

Drop Goal: Dobson

Huddersfield Giants               28

Tries:   Cudjoe 2, Wardle, Lunt, Murphy,

Goals:  Brough 4

Att:      6,963

Hull KR stunned Huddersfield with a strong second half fight back to claim the win at MS3 Craven Park.

Rovers made the start they wanted and after receiving back-to-back penalties, the ball was swiftly passed along the line as Travis Burns finished things off to open the scoring on four minutes.

Shortly later it was 10-0 with a superb one handed offload by Liam Salter got Alex Brown over the line.

Suddenly, Huddersfield awoke and hit back with blistering spell of four tries in 11 minutes. Luke Robinson ‘ short pass sent Leroy Cudjoe over for the first. Joe Wardle then added another before the visitors took the lead when Shaun Lunt finished off Robinson ‘ break.

Cudjoe intercepted Dobson's pass and raced 90 metres to score. Graeme Horne crashed over after a short pass from Burns, to cut the half time deficit to 22-16 in the Giants favour.

At the start of the second period Rovers had their own purple patch as they hit back with an 18 points burst in six minutes. Burns started the ball rolling by grabbing his second try and then his run followed by kick to the corner led to Brown also going over for a double.

 Con Mika made it 34-22 by touching down from close range and with six minutes to go Aaron Murphy crossed after getting on the end of a trademark Danny Brough kick.

But Robinson's error gave Hull KR position, and Dobson ensured of a home win by slotting over a 78-minute drop goal as the Giants five match winning streak was put to an end.

Widnes Vikings                      32

Tries:   Ah Van 3, Lawton, Winterstein, Hanbury

Goals:  Owen 4

Wigan Warriors                       33

Tries:   Tomkins, Tierney, Gelling 2,

            Charnley, Taylor

Goals:  Charnley 4

Drop Goal: Powell

Att:      6,528

A youthful looking Wigan Warriors edged out Widnes Vikings in a high scoring encounter at the Select Security Stadium.

The League leaders had nine first-teamers but still made their customary fast start quickly into their stride as Logan Tomkins –younger brother of Sam-went over from dummy half after just three minutes.

Patrick Ah Van charged on to Rhys Hanbury’s short pass as Widnes responded immediately.

On fourteen minutes the Warriors took the lead and it came courtesy of Lewis Tierney-the son of legend Wigan player Jason Robinson, the youngster on his debut to a Chris Tuson pass to cross wide out.

It got even better for the visitors as George Williams crossfield kick bounced nicely into the hands of Anthony Gelling to make it 16-6.

But the Vikings hit back and with two tries in the closing 13 minutes of the first half, they levelled things up 16-16 at the break. Hanbury setup Adam Lawton for the first score and then his deft kick for Jack Owens led to Frank Winterstein getting the other.

After the resumption Wigan re-took the lead as Josh Charnley raced the full length of the field to cross, but Widnes would not go away as Hanbury took a great offload from Dave Allen to score.

Hanbury was once again provider as Ah Van took another fine pass to make it a double only for the Warriors to level up at 22-22 with Gelling also scoring his second try of the game.

Sam Powell landed a drop goal with eleven minutes remaining and then his darting run set up Scott Taylor for the crucial try.

Ah Van squeezed over in the corner for his hat-trick late on but it was the young Warriors day as they held on for the win to take the winning run to thirteen games as they moved five points clear at the top of Super League table.

Catalan Dragons                     30

Tries:   Vaccari, Escare, Duport 2,

            Larroyer

Goals:  Bosc 5

Hull FC                                   4

Tries:   Lineham

Att:      8,105

Hull FC winning run came to abrupt hold in Perpignan as the Catalan Dragons claimed a resounding win.

The Black and Whites came into this game with wins against all the teams around them in recent weeks in a rehearsal for next month’s Challenge Cup quarter-final between the two teams.

Freddie Vaccari got things underway nicely for the hosts as he nipped in at the corner on three minutes. As in recent weeks Hull immediately responded and it came courtesy of inform winger Tom Lineham.

Catalan started to control the game and it was no surprise when young French full-back Morgan Escare went through a gap for his side’s second score of the game.

Three minutes before the break, Vincent Duport added try number three and with Thomas Bosc making it 3 from 3, the Dragons went into the interval with a useful 18-4 advantage.

Three minutes after the resumption, the French outfit all but put the game to bed as Kevin Larroyer powered his way over the line.

Duport made it a double seven minutes from time as Catalan claimed a comfortable win which end’s the Black and Whites run of 9 wins in 10 games.

London Broncos                     10

Tries:   Dixon, Mendeika

Goals:  Witt

Warrington Wolves                 82

Tries:   Hill, J. Monaghan, M. Monaghan2, Myler 2,

Westwood, Atkins2, Riley, Ratchford, Grix 3, Higham

Goals:  Ratchford 10, Briers

Att:      3,041

Warrington Wolves ran in 15 tries as they steamrolled London Broncos at the Preistfield Stadium Gillingham.

The Broncos had to play without their influential playmaker and captain Craig Gower who returned home this week to join the Newcastle Knights.

It did not take long for Warrington to get on their way as Chris Hill scored next to the posts on 9 minutes. Joel Monaghan added the next one after good work by Lee Briers.

As expected the third soon arrived as Michael Monaghan twisted and turned his way over the line, it was getting to easy for the visitors as Richard Myler broke through a series of weak tackles to touchdown,  There was still time before the interval for Michael Monaghan to claim his second after breaking more soft defence to touch down,. Stefan Ratchford kicked his fourth goal to make it 28-0.

But, in the dying seconds of the first half, London did get on the scoreboard when Kieran Dixon took a long pass from Luke Dorn to cross in the corner.

The second half was carnage for the Broncos as they were hit with ten further tries. Myler added his second on 42 minutes after a flowing move that involved Brett Hodgson and Briers.

Minutes later it was Ben Westwood turn to get on the try scoring sheet after he finished off a break by Ratchford.

It was try after try for Warrington, Ryan Atkins got himself a brace and Chris Riley also got in on the scoring act by crossing in the corner

Ratchford raced home in the 58th minute before at last the Broncos stopped the procession as on-loan Wolves player James Mendeika scored against his parent club.

However, this was only a temporary blip as the visitors continued their ruthless streak with Simon Grix adding an eight minute hat-trick in the final ten minutes of the game as the poor Broncos was run ragged.

So this one sided win for Warrington narrowed the gap on second place Huddersfield Giants to one point.

St Helens                                 30

Tries:   Manu, Makinson, Soliola,

            Jones, Wilkin

Goals:  O’Brien 5

Bradford Bulls                                    18

Tries:   Kearney, Blythe, Kear

Goals:  Gale 3

Att:      11,385

St Helens claimed only their second win in eight games as they got the better of Bradford Bulls at Langtree Park.

Saints were boosted by the return of Jonny Lomax from a three-month injury nightmare. Bradford, were without second rower Elliott Whitehead, who was left out after submitting a transfer request, and injured half-back Jarrod Sammut .

Saints made all the early running and it was no surprise when Willie Manu powered over the line on ten minutes. Eight minutes later Lomax made his first significant contribution when combining with Jordan Turner to get Tommy Makinson over out wide.

Bradford finally got into the game and reduced the arrears when Brett Kearney took prop Adam Sidlow's one-handed offload to touchdown.

But, it was St Helens half and just before the break Sia Soliola added a his side’s third try after taking  Jon Wilkin's pass to make it 18-6.

The game looked all over on 46-minutes when Josh Jones collected a careless offload by Sidlow and raced 60-meters to score. Gareth O’Brien maintained his 100 per cent record by kicking his fourth goal to stretch his side's lead to 24-6.

However, this trigged a Bulls rival as the visitors from West Yorkshire hit back to set up an interesting last ten minutes.

Centre Matty Blythe took Kearney's pass to score the first before Elliot Kear collected Luke Gale's high kick to touch down at the corner.

Gale converted both to cut the gap to 24-14, but James Roby made sure of a home win as he setup Wilkin for the match wining try, to put Saints back into the top eight at the expense of Bradford.

Salford City Reds                   10

Tries:   Williams, Broughton

Goals:  Gaskell

Wakefield Wildcats                46

Tries:   Aiton, Kirmond, Collis, Mathers,

            Sykes, Wilkes, Cockayne, Fox

Goals:  L. Smith 7

Att:      2,327

Wakefield Wildcats got back up and running with an eight try romp over Salford City Reds at the Salford City Stadium.

It was the Reds who made the better start and they took the lead when the ball was put through the hands and Martin Gleeson got Danny Williams over out wide.

However, this would be the only bright point of the game for Salford as Wakefield dominated the rest of the contest.

The game was all square on 17 minutes with Paul Aiton scoring a simple try from dummy half. A short pass from stand-off Paul Sykes got Danny Kirmond over as the visitors took the lead they would never relinquish.

Dean Collis strolled over without a home finger been laid on him as the Wildcats began to run riot. Richard Mathers was try scorer number four after good work by Tim Smith. Then just before the break Kyle Amor's pass out of the tackle led to Paul Sykes taking the score up to 30-4.

More was to follow for Wakefield at the start of the second half as Oliver Wilkes crashed over from short range and with Lee Smith kicking his sixth goal meant the visitors had scored 36 unanswered points.

Jodie Broughton briefly stopped the Wildcats juggernaut with a 90 metres interception before normal service began again as Tim Smith set the play up for Ben Cockayne to score his side’s seventh try on 63 minutes.

More good work by Tim Smith then enabled Collis to get left right winger Peter Fox over for the game's final try as Wakefield ended their four match loosing run.

Super League Table after 18 Rounds

Wigan 31, Huddersfield 26, Warrington 25, Catalan 22, Leeds 21, Hull FC 20, Hull KR 18, St Helens 17, Bradford 16, Wakefield 13, Widnes 12, Castleford 10, Salford 9, London 8