Rhinos rocked by Warriors

Reigning champions Leeds slumped to only their second defeat of the season, going down 14-10 at home to Wigan on Saturday.

Pat Richards and Thomas Leuluai scored first-half tries for Brian Noble's side and despite Scott Donald and Kylie Leuluai crossing for the Rhinos, the Warriors held on for the points.

The World Club Challenge winners had won nine from 10 games in Super League coming into this game at Headingley, but it was the visitors' strength in defence that eventually proved the difference in a scoreless second-half.

The Warriors now go second in the standings, just two points behind their opponents, and Noble maintains his fine record at Headingley where he has now won 11 out of 17 games as a coach.

To and fro

It was a tense opening to this war of the roses encounter with Wigan giving as good as they got early on at Headingley Carnegie and, despite conceding two early penalties through Phil Bailey's eagerness to slow down the opposition, Leeds were kept under control for the first 10 minutes.

The loss of Simon Worral and Ali Lauiti'iti through injury did not help Leeds, but Donald got the hosts going with his 10th try of 2008 after Wigan let a high Kevin Sinfield kick bounce, allowing Matt Diskin to feed Donald and the prolific winger beat Liam Colbon on the outside for the game's opener.

Wigan responded though eight minutes later as some crisp passing between Leuluai, Sean O'Loughlin and George Carmont sent Richards over to level the scores. Richards dusted himself down to kick the conversion and the Warriors soon made it 8-4 after a long distance penalty kick from the same player.

But it was a tale of two Leuluai's before the break as first Kylie went over for Leeds thanks to a delayed Sinfield pass and then his cousin, Thomas, restored Wigan's four-point lead after being put through by Iafeta Paleaasina.

Steel

Darrell Goulding was an early casualty for the Warriors in the second-half with an ankle injury, but that did not stop the teams picking up where they left off, playing expansively in attack and backing it up with solid grit and determination in defence.

Uncharacteristic errors from Jamie Peacock and Gareth Ellis restricted the Rhinos' attacking intent somewhat as the game drew on, but they had a great opportunity to score with 10 minutes remaining after Richards was dragged out of play by Lee Smith just five metres out.

Brian McClennan's side looked certain to score after switching the play from left to right, but Jordan Tansey was punished for a forward pass to Carl Ablett and to make matters worse Peacock conceded a penalty for flopping on Richard Mathers at the other end.

Leeds held on and then had two quick penalties of their own deep in Wigan territory.

However, both teams refused to be broken in defence and the second-half finished scoreless, Wigan taking the two points with a hard-fought victory.