Wakefield Trinity Wildcats scored a dramatic win over Leeds Rhino with a late try by loanee Richard Owen to continue their climb away from the foot of the table, with new coach James Webster now going four matches unbeaten since taking over from Richard Agar.
On a generally wet evening, Wakefield took the lead in the 16th minute when Danny Washbrook touched down a Tim Smith kick to the side of the posts, just beating Ben Jones-Bishop to touch the ball down, with Paul Sykes adding the conversion.
The Rhinos had to wait until the final ten minutes of the half before getting on the scoreboard, but they then took the lead with two unconverted tries.
The first came from Kallum Watkins, who glided through from close to the Wakefeld line after 32 minutes, before Jones-Bishop ran 80 metres to touch down when Sykes’ kick to the corner was picked up by Tom Briscoe, who fed Jones-Bishop who scored a superb individual try.
Liam Sutcliffe couldn’t convert either try, and Wakefield took the lead again when Richie Mathers scored a try after a magnificent change of direction of play from Tim Smith, with Paul Sykes giving the final inside pass and then converting the try to give Wakefield a 12-8 lead. after 53 minutes.
But Leeds moved ahead again when Ryan Hall scored a magnificent try when catching a high kick from Danny McGuire, outjumping Owen to touch down. Sutcliffe’s goal gave Leeds the lead.
And they thought they had won the game when McGuire touched down after a long run out of defence, but the try was controversially disallowed by the video referee because of a knock-on by Hall.
That left time for one more big attack by Wakefield, and again it was Tim Smith who create in, passing to Mathers who gave a perfectly timed scoring pass for Owen to score in the corner. Sykes couldn’t convert, but victorious Wakefield were able to play out the final seconds of the game and hold on for victory.
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