Almost 29 years to the day since Super League kicked off in Paris amid a flurry of excitement and hysteria, two teams with very different histories in the competition’s biggest games delivered a thriller for the 5,000th match in the history of the league.
The early evidence is still unclear on whether or not Warrington can claim a first Super League title – and first league title since 1955 – this year, or whether Leeds can add to the eight Grand Finals they already have. But they certainly showed enough between them to suggest they will be in the mix when the pressure is on come September and the scramble for Old Trafford reaches boiling point.
Of course, for a sport that drips with controversy and chaos at every turn, it would not have been right if such a milestone match failed to have a talking point.
It would be a stretch to suggest that the sending of Leeds’ Keenan Palasia to the sin-bin five minutes from full-time here decided this match in Warrington’s favour: but it undoubtedly helped.
At that point, Leeds were ahead by two and had led for over 50 minutes after tries from James McDonnell and Riley Lumb cancelled out Arron Lindop’s early score for the hosts. But when Palasia was adjudged to have made contact with Lachlan Fitzgibbon’s head, he was shown a yellow card.
And within 30 seconds, Warrington had crafted the space to score the game’s winning try through Jake Thewlis.
There would be one or two late moments of panic for the hosts, but they held firm to secure back-to-back league wins and continue to climb the table after a sluggish start under Sam Burgess in 2025.
“I’m really proud of them,” Burgess said, on a night when he was forced to change his entire three-quarter line due to injuries.
“It was a really tough game. It slowed down a bit in the second half but we’ve got a lot of spirit. We had a challenging start to the year but we’ve really bounced back.”
Perhaps understandably, Burgess’ opposite number had a fairly dim view of the Palasia yellow card that was so influential. “I’ve seen plenty of those already in five or six rounds this year,” Brad Arthur exclaimed. “Maybe as a coach I need to complain more and whinge about the referee.”
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He too was impressed with what he saw from his side here, dubbing them “heroic”. They were unfortunate to be on the wrong side of this result after leading for so long but the signs are there that Arthur could be the man to arrest the decline Leeds have endured in recent years.
“There’s definitely a footy team there,” the Australian said. Lindop’s early try, a wonderful individual effort, put the hosts ahead before Leeds’ maverick half-back, Jake Connor, assumed control of proceedings. He delivered two sensational assists for McDonnell and Lumb; the first a deft pass that sent the forward through a gap, and the second an outrageous cut-out pass to find the winger.
That put the Rhinos 10-6 up at half-time and when that lead was extended further when Lachie Miller found Super League’s all-time top try-scorer, Ryan Hall, Leeds were good value for their eight-point lead. But with Connor missing two of his three conversions, you did wonder how important that could prove to be.
So it proved. George Williams sent Stefan Ratchford over with 15 minutes to go, and Marc Sneyd nailed his second conversion to bring it back to within two. The late controversy then ensued, with Palasia departing before Thewlis exploited a gap to secure victory for the Wire. This would be Warrington’s night in terms of the result, but there were encouraging signs for both.
