It was a relief to get inside Headingley tonight, simply because it meant that we were away from the juvenile Warrington supporters who threatened and abused Mrs SouthStander.com and myself on way over the railway bridge an hour or so before kick-off.

I know that these apparently drunken youths are not typical of the Warrington fans in general but it is these 'so called supporters' who stopped me going to watch soccer in the late 1980's and they are becoming all too prevalent in the game I love. Should they really be allowed out without a responsible adult?

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Tony Smith opted to shuffle his pack ahead of tonights clash with the Wolves replacing Ryan Hall, who had a torrid time last week, with low on confidence Lee Smith. Sinfield was moved to hooker with Kirke in the second row and Ellis at loose forward.

Despite a near miracle over the other side of the Pennines, where Saints beat lowly Salford by a single point, the Rhinos aim was the two points and equal top spot.

Early on it didn't look such a simple ask as a determined Wolves took the game to the home side.

Leeds looked to have started the game well and had early pressure, but last weeks defensive strength was soon shown up to be a one-week-wonder. With just three minutes on the clock, Senior simply looked on as Fa'afili eased past him and went to the line unchallenged. Senior would probably claim that he slid to mark the winger but there was no cover and from twenty metres the Rhinos didn't lay a hand on the free scoring centre. Briers failed to convert, a small relief.

On the ten minute mark it looked like we may be going to have one of those nights as Donald failed to collect a pass with the try line begging and the ball went into touch.

On fifteen we finally got our opening score. Grose had knocked-on a grubber kick in his own goal area and four plays after the dropout a delightful McGuire pass put Senior overto redeem his earlier pedestrian defence. Sinfield goaled as he would with all his attempts tonight and we hit the front.

On twenty a spark of McGuire genius, in the form of a dummy and break saw him pass inside to poacher Webb who crossed under the sticks. The Sinfield goal gave us 12-4. On twenty-five Warrington showed that they weren't going to give in without a fight. A midfield kick to the corner wwas propelled forward off the knees of Penny and he won the race to score. The video referee ruled try but Briers failed with the goal attempt. It was 12-8.

7 from 7

We extended the lead on the half hour with the rarest of six pointers, penalty try. JJB had put in a superb inside ball to Senior who was first tackled very high on his way to the line and then had the ball kicked out of his hand by Briers in the act of scoring. I'd guess that the video referee awarded the penalty try for Briers kick, and the dummy came out big time, but I'll have to watch the tape to confirm. Sinfields conversion was moved in-front of the sticks and he doesn't miss from there.

Five minutes later and we extended the lead to 24-8 with a spectacular try. Senior passed to Donald on the Rhinos thirty and Scott went sixty metres down the wing before passing inside to McGuire to complete the last ten metres to score. Sinfield added the two.

The final action of the first half was to be Warringtons, and to give them some hope for the second half. With seconds left the visitors were deep in the Leeds half when a sublime Briers kick was collected on the full by Fa'afili for his second. Briers got his first conversion of the night to give us a 24-14 half time scoreline.

We had a platform to build on in the second half.

Much Better

With the second half just five minutes old Jordan Tansey got his second 40-20 in consecultive matches, thank goodness that one of our youngsters has read the rule book! On the fourth play from the resulting scrum a long ball from McGuire put Toopi over on the overlap. Sinfield goal took us to 30-14. On fifty a loose ball was hacked forward by Ablett and scored at the second attempt but the video referee ruled out the try for an earlier knock-on.

On fifty-eight the Wolves once again got back into the game thanks to a Briers grubber collected by Fa'afili who completed a great hat-trick. Briers extras brought the visitors back within 10 at 30-20.

Just as we were about to start thinking about biting our nails Penny dropped the ball on his own ten metre after trying to retrun a Leeds grubber.Webb picked up the loose ball and scored the easist try of his life. Sinfield converted for 36-20 and it was now beyond the Wolves.

With ten minutes left a penalty for a voluntary tackle, followed by another for a high shot saw Leeds camped in the Wolves twenty. Ian Kirke decided he wanted in on the scoring act and stepped out of a weak tackle some fifteen metres out and dived over under the sticks. Sinfield conversion extended the margin to twenty-two points.

With seconds left a superb solo try over eighty metres by Penny was scant consolation for the vociferous travelling support but narrowed the losing margin to 42-26.

This was a far more positive Rhinos performance than recent weeks but we are still far from the finished article. McGuire had a storming game, as did Rhinos star signing Brent Webb. Ellis and Peacock showed great go-forward and I was delighted that Kirke got just reward for a lot of hard work.

We've got a week off now before travelling to the Giants in sixtee days. Lets get everything crossed for another two points there to keep the pressure on the Saints at the top.