Warrington Wolves beat Leeds Rhinos in Friday 13th horror show
Last Updated: 14/03/15 7:43am
The Warrington Wolves made sure Friday the 13th was a day to forget for the Leeds Rhinos as they claimed an 18-6 First Utility Super League win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Leeds had been forced to leave out full-back Zak Hardaker after it emerged he was part of a police probe into an assault case, and little went right for the Rhinos on the pitch.
Ashton Golding came in for Hardaker and performed admirably, but mistakes elsewhere meant a first Super League defeat of the season, a drop from top spot in Super League and a fifth straight defeat on Wolves turf.
The Rhinos trailed 18-0 until scoring what proved to be a consolation try through winger Tom Briscoe and skipper Kevin Sinfield's goal took him to within three points of the 4,000 mark.
The Wolves, led by the magnificent Chris Hill in the absence of the injured Joel Monaghan, created the first chance when lively left winger Matty Russell produced a half-break but centre Ryan Atkins was pulled back for a forward pass.
Both sides were full of attacking intent but they virtually cancelled each other out and it took a moment of brilliance from right winger Kevin Penny to break the deadlock on 15 minutes.
Penny was forced to drop back to collect Stefan Ratchford's wayward pass but that succeeded in fooling the Leeds defence which was back-pedalling when the one-time basketball player cut a swathe through the middle for an opportunist score.
The Rhinos lost centre Joel Moon with concussion at that point but second rower Carl Ablett has plenty of experience in the three-quarters and he demonstrated his nous on 25 minutes to create a clear-cut opening for winger Ryan Hall, who uncharacteristically fumbled a decent scoring chance.
The Wolves then struck another blow seven minutes before the break when Ratchford raced onto a perfectly-judged grubber kick from scrum-half Gareth O'Brien.
Ratchford kicked his second goal to make it 12-0 and Warrington defended superbly to keep their lead intact up to the break, with Brad Singleton and Danny McGuire held agonisingly short of the line as the Rhinos pressed for a score.
Leeds recovered a 12-point interval deficit to win handsomely in their last match but any hopes of a repeat were dashed by an unusually sloppy error from Sinfield.
O'Brien swooped on a stray pass from the Rhinos stand-off 30 metres out from the visitors' line to get Atkins over for a third try and Ratchford kicked his third goal.
Leeds grabbed a lifeline on the hour when Hall broke clear on halfway and centre Kallum Watkins was in support to get Briscoe away and they thought they had scored again moments later when Singleton touched down after Ratchford had fumbled Sinfield's high kick but the try was ruled out for a knock-on by McGuire.
Sinfield went off injured 11 minutes from the end as Warrington comfortably held on for a precious victory despite Ratchford missing with a penalty kick at goal and Chris Bridge putting a drop-goal attempt wide.
