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Burrow guides Leeds to top

Warrington 22 Leeds 46

Dave Hadfield
Sunday 24 July 2005 00:00 BST
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Warrington ultimately had no answer to the range of attacking options from Leeds, for whom their diminutive scrum-half Rob Burrow contributed 18 points from a brilliant try and seven goals.

"He's grown in maturity if not in stature," said the Leeds coach, Tony Smith.

Warrington's Paul Cullen was scathing about what he described as his side's "non-existent kicking game."

"What could have been billed as a heavyweight contest turned to out to be a sparring match," he said.

Leeds took the lead after two minutes, Gareth Ellis getting a pass out of the tackle for Chev Walker to finish. It was part of a frenetic opening phase, full of handling mistakes, and from one of them Toa Kohe-Love picked up a loose ball and Warrington won a penalty for offside to narrow the margin.

That helped settle the Wolves and, after 15 minutes they took the lead, Mark Hilton slipping an exquisite short ball to Brent Grose and Graham Appo adding the conversion to his penalty.

Hilton lost the ball on the first tackle after the restart and was only spared by Willie Poching's knock-on and at the end of the next set of tackles Matt Diskin clambered over a pile of bodies to score.

The game was swinging Leeds' way. Even when Diskin was pulled up for a forward pass soon after, they turned it to their advantage, engineering a rare scrum win against the feed and moving the ball swiftly to exploit an overlap and give Walker his second try.

Warrington hit back before half-time when they opted to run a penalty from in front of the posts and Lee Briers' long pass picked out Logan Swann.

Leeds reasserted themselves after the break, with Burrow taking a return pass from Ali Lauitiiti and darting through a gap, also kicking his fourth conversion.

Just before the hour, Leeds made sure they would be returning to their customary perch, Ellis getting another good offload to Danny McGuire with Keith Senior scoring wide on the left.

Another of Briers' moments of outstanding skill produced a try for Henry Fa'afili with a gem of a reverse pass. It was all too late, with Marcus Bai consolidating Leeds' advantage by going the length of the field after picking off Swann's kick.

Two players who will not be at Headingley next season combined for Leeds' seventh try, Chris McKenna laying the ball off for Mark Calderwood before Fa'afili got his second for the Wolves. Bai still had the final word for Leeds, though, andthe job was done.

Warrington: Grose; Fa'afili, Martin Gleeson, Kohe-Love, Appo; Briers, N Wood; Leikvoll, Mark Gleeson, Hilton, Swann, Westwood, Clarke. Substitutes used: Pickersgill, Noone, P Wood, Lima.

Leeds: Mathers; Calderwood, Walker, Senior, Bai; McGuire, Burrow; Ward, Diskin, McDermott, Lauitiiti, McKenna, Ellis. Substitutes used: Poching, Dunemann, Scruton, Cummins.

Referee: S Ganson (St. Helens).

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