Rhinos edge thriller

Defending champions Leeds Rhinos came from behind to inflict a 37-30 defeat on Warrington Wolves in a thrilling engage Super League encounter at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The patched-up Rhinos trailed 20-12 at the break but roared back in the second half to edge victory in a 12-try spectacular.

It was only Warrington's second home defeat of the season after losing to table-toppers Wigan in February.

Both clubs scored six tries but Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield crucially landed all six goals from six attempts and a long-range drop six minutes from time.

Warrington's Briers missed four of his seven shots to leave the Wolves four points behind Wigan.

Depleted

Leeds, who slumped to a shock 32-26 home defeat by Crusaders last week, went into the clash without half a dozen regulars - but it hardly showed.

Kylie Leuluai, Matt Diskin and Brent Webb all face six-week lay-offs to join Rob Burrow, Ali Lauitiiti and Luke Burgess on the sidelines.

Warrington were boosted by the return of Richie Mathers against his old club after missing the win at Bradford, and Vinnie Anderson.

Wolves boss Tony Smith has still beaten Leeds only once in his coaching career - when the Australian was in charge of Huddersfield seven years ago.

Smith's side made a superb start with Michael Monaghan and Ben Westwood combining for Matt King to charge over for the third game in a row after five minutes.

A thundering Jamie Peacock tackle was then needed to deny Monaghan when the Warrington hooker hesitated following a midfield burst.

But Leeds took the lead with a sizzling solo effort from Keith Senior.

The 34-year-old former Great Britain centre turned back the clock by brushing off Adrian Morley and then side-stepping Mathers on a 50-metre sprint for only his second try in the last 10 games.

Warrington's mistakes could have proved costly with Chris Riley spilling a Ryan Atkins pass with a clear run to the line but Chris Bridge's inventiveness brought a try for Hicks who collected a perfectly-timed kick to edge the Wolves ahead 8-6.

David Solomona's handling skills created a Ryan Atkins try after the Kiwi sold Brett Delaney a dummy but Briers missed his third conversion.

Leeds levelled 12-12 with Greg Eastwood bursting on to Danny McGuire's short pass for his first Super League try since arriving from Canterbury Bulldogs with Sinfield adding his second goal.

Briers made amends for his poor marksmanship with his smart inside pass putting Hicks over for his second try - with the former Wakes skipper finally landing a conversion to fire Warrington ahead 18-12.

Solomona's craft earned Warrington a penalty for Briers to make it 20-12 at the break.

But when Briers failed to make 10 metres with the restart Leeds took advantage for Scott Donald to leap high and gather Sinfield's kick with the Rhinos skipper adding the touchline conversion to reduce the arrears to two points.

Entertainment

King's second try, goaled by Briers, restored the advantage but, in a ding-dong affair, Danny Buderus darted over from dummy-half to make it 26-24.

Warrington were rocked when Ryan Hall, with his thigh heavily strapped, took McGuire's pass with Sinfield's touchline conversion firing Leeds ahead 30-26.

The fans lapped up the entertainment with Riley finishing off a mesmerising move to go over in the corner and level again - but Briers again missed the difficult goal attempt.

McGuire's brilliant long-range try and Sinfield's sixth conversion made it 36-30.

Sinfield then booted a 45-metre drop goal to give his side a valuable seven-point cushion - and they held on for a hard-fought win.