Super League XVIII - Round 3 Review

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Leeds Rhinos 42
Tries: Ward, Moon 2, Watkins, McShane 2, Sinfield
Goals: Sinfield 7
 
Salford City Reds 14
Tries: Gibson 2, Evalds
Goals: Sneyd
 
Att: 12,558
 
Leeds Rhinos warmed up for next Friday's World club challenge by easing past Salford City Reds at Headingley Carnegie.
 
After last week's shock defeat at Castleford, the Champions needed to get back on track. Ryan Bailey, Brett Delaney and Jamie Peacock, all sat this game out with the big match next week big in mind so this gave opportunities to Kylie Leuluai, Richard Moore and Stevie Ward, all making their first appearance this year.
 
Salford  were looking to get their season going but they faced a tall order against a team they have only beaten once in 31 Super League games and also their form was not great with no wins in nine.
 
From the start it was one-way traffic and Ward won a footrace to the line to open the scoring for Leeds on three minutes. To their credit the City Reds responded and should have done better as they had the ball for six straight sets.
 
Having survived that spell, the hosts increased their lead as ex Joel Moon scored against his old club. On 26 minutes try number three followed courtesy of Kallum Watkins. Kevin Sinfield made it three from three with the boot as the Rhinos led 18-0.
 
In dying minutes of the first half, the City Reds surprised the home crowd by getting on the scoreboard themselves. Ryan McGoldrick's pass set Jodie Broughton free and, although he was stopped, Leeds were short on defensive numbers and Marc Sneyd kicked into open space for ex Rhino Ashley Gibson to score. Sneyd kicked the goal.
 
After the restart it was game on as Niall Evalds intercepted a Danny McGuire pass and went the full length of the field to score. The comeback was short lived as the hosts responded with quick-fire brace.
 
Moon made it a double and substitute hooker Paul McShane with a close range effort. With then minutes left McShane was on hand again to score a carbon copy effort as the score was increased to 36-10.
 
Gibson added another, before skipper Sinfield had the final say by pouncing on a loose pass and kicking his seventh goal out of seven on the night.
 
However, after the game, Leeds coach Brain McDermott announced that his team had suffered more injury misery as full-back Zak Hardaker had damaged his thumb and was a major doubt for next week's World Club Challenge against the Melbourne Storm.

 
St Helens 22
Tries: Laffranchi, Meli, Turner, Jones
Goals: Gaskell 3
 
Hull FC 22
Tries: Crookes, McDonnell, Briscoe, Whiting
Goals: Holdsworth 3
 
Att: 11,257

Hull FC came from behind to claim draw over St Helens at Langtree Park.
 
The Black and Whites came into this looking for a third win in four visits to St Helens against a hosts who were looking to improve their form after a stuttering start to the campaign.
 
It was Hull who got the dream start as winger Jason Crookes took Daniel Holdsworth ' pass and went over for the first try on 4 minutes.
Unfortunately, Crookes made an error by dropping the ball from Lee Gaskell's high kick and that led to Saints' Anthony Laffranchi levelling.
 
Now St Helens got on top and two more tries followed. Paul Wellens combined with Josh Jones for Francis Meli to go over for try number two. The next score came from former Hull centre Jordan Turner who stepped inside his old team-mate Kirk Yeaman to score his first try for Saints. Gaskell kicked two of his three conversions as St Helens led 16-6.
 
Nine minutes before the break the lead was down to four as full-back Shannon McDonnell won the race to Holdsworth's perfectly-judged kick .Holdsworth added his second goal to make it 16-12 at half-time in favour of the hosts.
 
Saints were first to score in the second half as centre Josh Jones crossed out wide, but Hull would not lie down and kept in touching distance thanks to England winger Tom Briscoe who got on the end of another Holdsworth's pinpoint kick to the corner.
 
The home-side started to make more errors and the Black and Whites profited to set up a grandstand finish. On 71 minutes Holdsworth and Richard Horne combined to get centre Richard Whiting slicing through for Hull's fourth try, with the scores level Holdsworth conversion was off target and he also missed two late drop-goals as the game ended in stalemate.
 
So this result leaves St Helens without a home win so far this year.


Warrington Wolves 24
Tries: J. Monaghan 2, Myler, Evans
Goals: Hodgson 4

Catalan Dragons 16
Tries: Blanch 2, Taia
Goals: Bosc 2

Att: 10,015

Warrington Wolves ended Catalan Dragons 100% start to the season with a hard-fought win at the H.J. Stadium.
 
Both these teams came into this one without losing this year, and something had to give. The Wolves faced another tough battle after last week's draw at Wigan and for the Dragons they were looking to continue their great start to 2013.
 
The match was played as high intensity from the start and it was the hosts who broke the deadlock as Joel Monaghan twisted over on the right hand side after 9 minutes.
 
A melee then broke out as Dragons stand-off Leon Pryce was stopped short by Chris Riley and appeared to knee the Warrington winger as he got up, but after coming close to scoring, the Wolves scored a controversial second try.
 
Riley was tackled into touch close to the line by Brent Webb and Steve Menzies. But surprisingly, the Wolves were awarded the scrum after the officials spotted the slightest of knock-ons by Damien Blanch prior to Atkins receiving the ball from a Brett Hodgson pass and Joel Monaghan went over for a double to make it 12-0.
 
Moments later good work by Michael Monaghan led to Richard Myler having a clear run to the line and with Hodgson's second goal the Wolves increased their lead to 16-0.
 
Despite having Webb  sin-binned for holding down, the French outfit railed and reduced the arrears two minutes before the break  Catalan survived that scare and scored themselves just before half-time through Blanch and a conversion by Thomas Bosc.
 
The comeback continued after the break as Catalan were first score when Blanch found space out wide to score his second and with Bosc kicking a touchline goal the gap was down to four.
 
However, Myler had other ideas as he created a fourth Wolves try, midway through the second half. The England scrum-half' superb grubber kick was seized on by Rhys Evans.
 
In the last ten minutes the game became scrappy and after another melee Webb was shown his second yellow card with Ben Westwood also joining him in the sin-bin.
 
Hodgson kicked his fourth goal from a penalty to give Warrington the win but ex Knight Zeb Taia had the final say burrowed over from close range as the Dragons fell short and suffered their first defeat this year.
 
Huddersfield Giants 22
Tries: McGillvary, Cording, Ferres
Goals: Brough 5

Wigan Warriors 10
Tries: Farrell, Charnley
Goals: Richards
 
Att: 8,023

Huddersfield Giants came from behind against Wigan Warriors at the John Smiths Stadium to keep up their 100% start to the season.
 
Wigan had to ring the changes as star-man Sam Tomkins missed the game with a shoulder injury as they looked to dent the Giants great start to 2013.
 
From the start they did not miss their talisman as the Warriors took the game to Huddersfield and with a quickfire brace they took control.
 
Second rower Liam Farrell opened the scoring by burrowing his way over the line and seconds later he took a great pass from Blake Green, to set up stand-in full-back Josh Charnley for try number 2. Pat Richards added one conversion as after 11 minutes Wigan led 10-0.
 
Finally the Giants woke up and  gradually got themselves into the contest and on 21 minutes  right winger Jermaine McGillvary took Leroy Cudjoe'  neatly-timed pass to get the hosts on the scoreboard. Danny Brough's touchline conversion cut the gap to 10-6 at the interval.
 
In the early stages of the second d period substitute Jamie Cording thundered onto Shaun Lunt's short pass to score his first Huddersfield try and once again Brough made no mistake with the extras to give his side a 12-10 lead.
 
Brough then kicked a penalty goal second goal on 55 minutes after Jason Chan had been the victim of a high tackle. The hosts were now dominant and despite all the pressure Wigan held pout until 8 minutes from time Brough kicked his fourth goal of the game.
 
The Giants withstood a barrage from the Warriors and clinched the win in the last minute as Richards flew out a speculative pass 10 metres out from the Huddersfield line, Brett Ferres seized on the ball and raced 909-meters to score.
 
Brough maintained his accuracy with another touchline conversion, his fifth goal from as many attempts as Huddersfield became the only team in Super League with a 100% record.

Bradford Bulls 38
Tries: Kearney 3, Sidlow, Blythe, Walker
Goals: Foster 7

Castleford Tigers 12
Tries: Ellis, Dixon
Goals: Ellis 2
Att: 7,724

Bradford Bulls got back to winning ways as they got past Castleford Tigers at the Provident Stadium Odsal.
 
Castleford, after last week's great win over Leeds had talisman Rangi Chase suspended so his place went to on-loan Warrington half-back Gareth O'Brien.
 
For the Bulls they were looking to continue their good run against their opponents a team they have lost only twice to in the summer era.
 
Both teams had chances in a tense start to the game but it was the hosts who struck first. A Brett Kearney bomb, not dealt with by the Tigers' defence, was retrieved by Elliott Kear, who sent the ex Cronulla Shark over for the games first try
 
Some Good work by Jordan Thomson set up Ellis to levelled things up for the Tigers as the half-back crossed next to the posts.
 
Things immediately got worse for Bradford as Danny Addy was sin-binned for persistent offending. But it was the 12 men who struck next with Adam Sidlow crashing over for his second try of the season. Jamie Foster added his second conversion to give the hosts 12-6 half time lead.
 
Shortly after the resumption the Tigers drew level once more. Ex Rooster Justin Carney and Grant Millington split the defence and Adam Milner kicked ahead for Kirk Dixon to score under the posts. Ellis landed a second conversion
 
However, the Bulls responded when a fine try thanks to some excellent work by Kearney as his deft final offload from Kearney sent Matty Blythe in out wide. Foster added the extras and kicked a penalty to make it 20-12.
 
The game turned Bradford ' way when Castleford had two men sin-binned minutes after each other. Firstly Carney for a professional foul on Elliott Whitehead after holding him down in the tackle and after a further string of penalties, Ellis was shown a yellow card after a team warning.
 
Predictably, the pressure told as Chev Walker went between the posts with seven minutes remaining. Late on Kearney ran in two more to complete his hat-trick with Foster taking his tally to seven goals from seven attempts in a comfortable Bulls win.

 
Hull KR 44
Tries: Dobson, Caro, Ferguson, Welham, Horne, Eden, Heil, Hall
Goals: Dobson 6

Widnes Vikings 18
Tries: Hock, Hanbury, Gerrard
Goals: Hanbury 3

Att: 7,247

Hull KR finally got their season up and running with an eight-try romp over Widnes Vikings at MS3 Craven Park.
 
Rovers suffered back-to-back defeats by Catalan Dragons and Wakefield in their opening two matches and Widnes were looking for a second win in three after last week's close loss to St Helens.
 
The East Yorkshire hosts made a dominant start and took the lead after a 60-metre break from Omari Caro set up Michael Dobson for the game's first touchdown.
 
It got even better for the Robins as speedster Caro intercepted Rhys Hanbury's pass 20 metres from his own line and showed a clean pair of heels to race 80-meters to score.
 
Suddenly, Widnes were getting blown apart and after Con Mika forced Eamon O'Carroll to knock on, Dale Ferguson was on hand to power over for try number three.
 
Kris Welham was next on the scoresheet in his first match of the campaign and Rovers were not finished yet as Graeme Horne came off the bench to score and in the very next set Greg Eden went under the posts. Dobson kicked five from six as by half-time the game was all over as a contest with the hosts leading 34-0.
 
After never looking kike scoring in the first half five minutes after the resumption on loan Wigan forward Gareth Hock scored the Vikings opening try and Han bury score another consolation on 63 minutes.
 
Rovers then burst back to life as Chris Heil and Craig Hall both went over as the lead went out to 44-12. Back came Widnes to end proceedings with a late try from Alex Gerrard, converted by Hanbury to give the final score a bit more respectable.

 
London Broncos 0
 
Wakefield Wildcats 28
Tries: Cockayne 2, Kirmond, Fox, Mathers
Goals: Sykes 4

Att: 1,887

Wakefield Wildcats shut out London Broncos in a one-sided game at the Twickenham Stoop.
 
London looked stronger as they welcomed back Craig Gower, Michael Witt, Michael Robertson and Matt Cook all returning from injury.
 
However, it took only 50 seconds for Wakefield to score as Ben Cockayne took Reece Lyne ' pass to cruise over the line.
 
The rest of the half belonged to the Wildcats but for some strange reason they wasted numerous chances to score as the Broncos could not get into the game and surprisingly they were in with a chance as the score at half-time was only 6-0.
 
Five minutes into the second period Paul Sykes edged the visitors further ahead when he added a penalty goal and this led to renewed impetuous as Danny Kirmond scored a simple try. A break from Ali Lauitiiti set up Cockayne for his second of the game to all bit finish the Broncos off.
 
The Londoners thought they were finally on the board midway through the half when Dixon raced clear to touch down from inside his own half, but play was bought back for a knock on  and to rub salt into the wounds the Wildcats went to the other end and  winger Peter Fox raced over to make it 22-0.
 
Still Wakefield spilled more chances in a game they should have won by a more convincing margin, but five minutes from time Richard Mathers scored the visitors fifth try as they claimed back-to-back wins as poor old London suffered a second successive heavy loss.
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