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| Wakefield (0) 18 |
| Tries: Ashurst, Jowitt, Johnstone Goals: Jowitt 3 |
| Leeds (30) 34 |
| Tries: Fusitu’a, Gannon, Newman, Handley 3 Goals: Martin 5 |
Leeds Rhinos ended their losing run in Super League with victory over Wakefield Trinity, with Ash Handley scoring a hat-trick.
The Rhinos cut loose in the first-half with David Fusitu’a, Morgan Gannon, Harry Newman and Handley all crossing to leave Trinity all but beaten.
Handley completed his treble after the break to keep Trinity at arm’s length.
However, tries from Matty Ashurst, Max Jowitt and Tom Johnstone showed Trinity’s heart, albeit in vain.
It seemed evident that someone’s unwanted record would come to an end here in this one as both teams sat on zero points, and Leeds were the side ruthless enough to take advantage.
They targeted the out-of-position Jay Pitts and James Batchelor in the centres, and also peppered debutant winger Lewis Murphy with kicks.
On the back of Mikolaj Oledzki’s thumping runs, the Pole proudly displaying a Ukraine flag as a mark of respect as the war with Russia continues, halves Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin had the time and space to create.
Gannon’s try came from a fumbled kick which caused chaos, but sharp execution from moves created by the Aussie duo provided the rest of the scores.
Having gone in scoreless at the break, Wakefield had to come out with a positive outlook in the second half and they were rewarded for their perseverance when Ashurst finished off out wide and Jowitt dived in under the posts.
Johnstone’s wonderful take from a big rainbow pass wide in the last play of the game was a remarkable finish and gave the scoreline a respectability Wakefield might not have expected.
Wakefield Trinity boss Willie Poching told BBC 5 Live Sports Extra:
“I noticed some fight in us, I knew before the game that we could show fight for the whole 80 minutes, but the first half did the damage.
“We need to look at our discipline, they were the more aggressive team at the start and things swing your way when you’re the aggressor.
“While we had that intent about us, we didn’t have that intent for long enough periods and it took us 25 minutes to work out we could go set-for-set with them.
“We didn’t get out of the blocks like we wanted to but credit to Leeds they played some good football in the weather and had a plan that worked tonight.”
Leeds head coach Richard Agar:
“We’ve been close in two games, we just needed to encourage us to play with the ball a little bit more and find some energy and a little bit of free-flowing footy that we know we’ve got within us.
“We’ve been a bit within ourselves with the ball of late but some inclusions back in our team certainly helped from a quality perspective.
“Despite the conditions, there is a tendency to play completion and kick-chase footy but we had good movement and completed at 91%.
“We scored some nice tries and I don’t think we eased off. We were a bit more stop-start in the first 10 minutes but it’s a six-one penalty count and that’s what we need to look at.”
Wakefield: Walker; Murphy, Pitts, Batchelor, Johnstone; Miller, Lino; Whitbread, Bowes, Arona, Ashurst, Tanginoa, Crowther
Interchanges: Battye, Fifita, Aydin, Kay
Leeds: Walker; Fusitu’a, Newman, Sutcliffe, Handley; Austin, Sezer; Oledzki, Leeming, Prior, Gannon, Martin, Tetevano
Interchanges: Dwyer, Smith, Thompson, Briscoe
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