Wakefield Trinity battled hard to hang onto a 14-12 victory over Leeds Rhinos at Headingley on their return to the Super League from the Championship.
With a strong crowd in attendance, both sides got off to an attritional start to the encounter but it was Wakefield who were on top in attack, new signings Mike McMeeken and Tom Johnstone doing damage in the opening 15 minutes.
They got the reward for their efforts in the 23rd minute as they kept the ball alive on the last, Max Jowitt backing up to dive over and then converting his own effort for a 6-0 lead.
The score gave the visitors even more confidence and with their edges firing it wasn’t long until Jowitt had his second, backing up a huge break from Jake Trueman past Jake Connor to put Wakefield 10-0 in front after 30 minutes.
The Trinity came out in force at Headingley
After they had another try chalked off for obstruction, it wasn’t long until Trinity had more points on the board through Mason Lino, but the Rhinos hit back in the corner on the stroke of half-time through Harry Newman and Connor’s conversion to trail 14-6 at the break.
As the rain started to fall and scores hadn’t moved in the third quarter, Trinity suffered a setback as Lino was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle but they survived the onslaught from Leeds and got back to 13 on the pitch with no more points on the board.
In the dying moments, Sam Lisone managed to spin over and Connor converted to bring the scoreline to 14-12 but Wakefield managed to hold on and wrap up a huge win to get their return to Super League off to an electric start.
Sailor scores four as Saints demolish young Salford side
St Helens put in an 82-0 demolition against a young Salford Red Devils side in their opening Super League clash at the Totally Wicked Stadium.
After only naming 16 players for the clash with St Helens following their decision to name ‘predominantly reserve squad players’ in their squad due to ongoing disputes with the RFL regarding salary caps, Salford Red Devils were immediately under pressure with the differences in quality immediately evident.
Salford entered the match still under a reduced sustainability cap of £1.2m while their new ownership consortium is still pending final approval by the RFL and despite seemingly still having first-team players available under that cap opted to field a team of reserve players, with their three first-teamers of Joe Bullock, Tiaki Chan, and Ben Hellewell on the bench.
It took only five minutes for St Helens to get on the scoreboard, testimonial man Morgan Knowles powering over from short range before Lewis Murphy, Tristan Sailor, and Curtis Sironen also went over to put the home outfit 22-0 up after just 15 minutes.
Lewis Murphy opened his scoring account for Saints in his first Super League appearance for the club
Youngster Harry Robertson was then the next to cross the whitewash for Saints on the 22nd minute, Percival converting for a 28-0 advantage, before Knowles added his second and then Robertson went over once again to go in with a commanding 38-0 lead at half-time.
The second half then started in the same fashion as the first, NRL recruit Kyle Feldt opening his account for his new club and captain Jonny Lomax quickly following him over the whitewash to move St Helens into a 48-0 lead after just 47 minutes.
Tristan Sailor scored four tries as Saints romped to victory
With two more for Sailor bringing up his hat trick on his home debut and taking Saints way past the half-century mark, he decided to make it four with his pace shining once again, the home outfit cruising to 66-0 with 10 minutes remaining.
Percival, Joe Batchelor, and George Delaney then decided to get in on the try-scoring action and with their points, the rout was well and truly complete.
What’s next?
Round one of the Super League season concludes when Warrington Wolves and Huddersfield Giants go head to head on Sunday February 16, live on Sky Sports from 3pm.
Sky Sports will again show every game of the Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four matches each week shown on Sky Sports+
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