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.
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+
