PICTURES EDDIE WHITHAM
TOOTHLESS Warrington Wolves were thrashed 40-0 in a “disappointing performance” against Leeds Rhinos at Headingley.
Leeds ran in seven unanswered tries, the final one seeing veteran half-back Rob Burrow out pacing the woeful Warrington defence from inside his own half to rub salt in already raw wounds.
It was hard to believe that it was Warrington who actually started the better of the two teams, almost bossing the opening 15 minutes but unable to find a way through the Leeds defence.
They then became guilty of dropping the ball and giving away needless penalties allowing Leeds back into the game.
When Rhinos’ hooker Matt Parcell crossed to open the scoring with Liam Sutcliffe adding the extras it was pretty much against the run of play as Leeds were forced to reshuffle following the loss of fullback Ashton Goldings. Sutcliffe added the second try after ghosting over from Danny Maguire’s pass but was unable to add the extras. He then added a penalty to make the score 12-0 at half-time.
When Leeds extended their lead after the break through Jamie Jones-Buchanan as Wolves made a number of handling errors, the writing was already on the wall
Further tries from Joel Moon Parcell completing his hat-trick and Rob Burrow’s final try of the night condemned Warrington to a disappointing defeat.
The closest Warrington came to scoring was when Joe Philbin was held up over the try line, but it was a disjointed performance throughout, littered with handling errors and needless penalties, which saw Warrington’s Daryl Clark and Leeds’ Stevie Ward sent to the sin bin for exchanging punches.
Wolves head coach Tony Smith, who spent three years in charge at Leeds, admitted it had been a “disappointing performance.”
“It was a promising start but we started to gift possession to Leeds. If you are not at your best against Leeds you can get punished. It was very disappointing,” he said.
Warrington were nilled for the first time since April 2016.
Leeds Rhinos: Golding; Briscoe, Watkins, L Sutcliffe, Hall; McGuire, Moon; Singleton, Parcell, Cuthbertson, Ferres, Ward, Jones-Buchanan.
Replacements: Burrow, Baldwinson, Delaney, Mullally.
Warrington Wolves: Ratchford; Russell, Hughes, Atkins, Lineham; Brown, Gidley; Hill, Clark, Sims, Jullien, Westerman, Cooper.
Replacements: Crosby, G King, Patton, Philbin.
