Wakefield Trinity Wildcats vs Leeds Rhinos Review

 At the fourth time of asking Leeds Rhinos have finally registered their first victory of the 2022 season after beating Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 34-18. Taking advantage of a back line made up of inexperienced players and players playing out of position, Leeds ran in five tries in the first half before being pegged back by a defiant Wakefield team in the second stanza. Ash Handley was the pick of the Leeds Rhinos players picking up a hat trick of tries on the night.

Leeds started the game in scintillating style and found themselves 3 trys to the good within the first 15 minutes, much to the delight of the travelling fans. The Scoring started in just the fourth minute when  David Fusitua crossed for his first try for his new club. These tries were swiftly followed with tries from Morgan Gannon and Harry Newman, who made his first start of the season. 

All three tries were created by the willingness of the Leeds team to spread the play to the backline early when attacking which was lucrative as they were facing a backline of players who were out of position and inexperienced. In particular the debutant winger Lewis Murphy struggled all night under high balls expertly placed by Blake Austin and Aiden Sezer. Ash Handley got his first of three tries after gathering a loose ball that was spilled by Murphy and scoring in the corner. He also added a second just before halftime by cutting in from the wing and finding a large gap in a broken Wakefield defensive line.

After such a positive first start, the second half started in the worst way possible when Harry Newman was forced off the field injured with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. Shortly after Matty Ashurst picked up Trinity’s first try of the evening when Tom Johnstone out jumped Fusitu’a competing for a high ball and batted the ball down and Ashurt dived over. Leeds hit back on the 62 minute mark with Handley completing his hat trick after a sweeping move across the width of the pitch that appeared to be straight from the training ground. Numerous decoy runs helped to create space in the corner for Handley to expertly finish in the corner despite a desperate cover tackle.

Hampered by increasingly deteriorating conditions, the second 40 minutes left a lot to be desired for the watching Leeds fans compared to the excitement of the first half. Leeds struggled to find the fluency in their attack which led to them scoring five tries in the first half and struggled to create any significant chances to improve their points tally.. These efforts were also hampered by a Kruise Leeming receiving a yellow card for a mistimed high tackle on young halfback Harry Bowes. 

Wakefield, despite being outplayed throughout the match, did run in two consolation tries in the final three minutes. Firstly Mason Lino, who was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak performance for Wakefield, broke through the Leeds line before offloading to Liam Kay who grubbered through to a chasing Max Jowitt. Tom Johnstone also continued his scoring streak and scored in the last thirty seconds of the game when he gathered in a floated miss pass that bypassed the Leeds defenders and allowed him to cross the try line unchallenged.

After such a tough start to the season there was a sigh of relief for both the fans and players that they were finally able to get the first win of the season under their belt. What was most exciting to see on Thursday night was seeing the attacking flair return that was evident throughout the preseason games. Both halfbacks contributed by giving the Leeds centres and wingers early ball to attack the Wakefield edge but perhaps the most impressive player in the first half was Jack Walker. Much like the team the young fullback has appeared to struggle in the first three games of the season after such a long injury lay off over the last two seasons however on Thursday he appeared to be returning close to his best. Like teams have done to Leeds so far this season, Walker was constantly lurking around the ruck looking for every opportunity to receive an offload and attack the Wakefield line.

What will be disappointing for Leeds fans will be how Wakefield were allowed to come back into the game in the second half and score three tries. David Fusitu’a was left wanting for two of the tries by being beaten in the air by Tom Johnstone and then biting in and allowing space for Tom Johnstone to cross in the final moments of the game. I’m hesitant to be too harsh as it is only his second game for the club and it does take time to acclimatise to both a new country and new style of play. It was also agonsing to see Harry Newman leave the field on the 46th minute mark after missing the first three games. It was reported during the game that it was just a dead leg however it looked to the untrained eye to be a hamstring injury after stepping off his recently recovered leg and it is yet to be seen whether he will feature in this week's squad.

It is important now that the Rhinos kick on on Thursday night when they meet a Hull FC team that have had an up and down start to their season and lost last time out to a Castleford Tigers team who like the Rhinos picked up their first win of the season. Leeds have already shown they are capable of playing a similar style to the Wakefield game against Hull FC who they beat 38-6 in the pre season.

For a more in depth preview of the Hull FC game please check out my preview that will be live in the coming days.

Thank you for reading and remember all Leeds aren’t we.