Halifax 6-34 Leeds: Leeds all but confirm Super League survival

Brad Dwyer scored a brace to help Leeds to victory

Leeds are on the brink of Super League survival after overcoming a scare to record a 34-6 victory at Halifax.

After London, Toulouse and Toronto claimed a remarkable hat-trick of wins for Championship clubs over Super League opposition on Saturday, Halifax were aiming to cause the biggest upset of them all against the Rhinos.

But a professional performance from the fallen champions virtually assured their safety and left Richard Marshall's part-timers staring at a second successive winless Qualifiers campaign.

The scoreline flattered Leeds, who were out-enthused in the first half and needed a quickfire double from Brad Dwyer just after the interval to end Halifax's resistance.

Liam Sutcliffe put the result beyond doubt and finished with five goals after late efforts from Cameron Smith and Luke Briscoe.

Fax had gone into the break level after Steve Tyrer's spectacular finish cancelled out Richie Myler's opener but they were unable to maintain their intensity as fatigue set in.

Leeds had seen Widnes lose their Super League status the previous day and knew a shock defeat at The Shay would have left them in danger of dropping into the Million Pound Game on an intriguing final weekend.

The two West Yorkshire sides have taken very different paths since their last meeting 15 years ago and the match went to script in the early stages.

Halifax struggled to get out of their own 20-metre line after receiving the kick-off and, having already gone close, Myler collected Joel Moon's reverse kick to score the opening try on five minutes.

The Fax forwards rocked their Leeds counterparts with some big hits as the hosts settled into the contest and they almost took their first opportunity as Jacob Fairbank juggled the ball going for the line before dropping it.

Tyrer came up with a timely interception on halfway to keep Leeds penned in their own end and then acrobatically claimed and finished Scott Murrell's cross-field kick to stun the Rhinos.

The experienced centre added the extras to his own try to make it 6-6 with half-time approaching and Halifax finished the opening 40 minutes on top.

The break came at the right time for Leeds and they were back in front within 90 seconds of the restart as Dwyer went over from dummy half after James Woodburn-Hall had spilt Sutcliffe's high kick.

That try visibly dented Halifax's belief and the Championship side were out of the game after Dwyer scored an almost identical try and Sutcliffe glided through a huge hole in the defence.

Halifax halted Leeds' momentum and came close to their second try when Shane Grady stormed through, only to lose the ball.

But the Rhinos finished strongly, with Smith going over next to the posts before giving Briscoe a clear run to the line with a lovely long pass.

Ben Heaton was sin-binned three minutes from time after halting Tom Briscoe's break with a high tackle but the reception he received from the home fans underlined their appreciation for Halifax's efforts.