McGuire's solo 'specials' help Leeds blaze trail

Warrington 22 Leeds 38

Leeds tightened their grip on top spot in Super League as Warrington lost their scrum-half as well as further ground on the leading group.

Leeds tightened their grip on top spot in Super League as Warrington lost their scrum-half as well as further ground on the leading group.

Nat Wood was carried off with an ankle injury, after a tackle for which Andrew Dunemann was placed on report. It was an incident which the Warrington coach, Paul Cullen, believed deprived his side of much of their momentum.

Long before that though, Leeds had looked the likely winners and they emphasised their superiority afterwards, especially when Danny McGuire scored two solo tries of the highest quality.

Warrington had slipped to a 12-point deficit early in the game, thanks to their inability to cope with Leeds' high kicks. Dunemann's effort was allowed to bounce, setting up the situation for Ali Lauiti'iti and Keith Senior to keep the ball alive for Marcus Bai to score.

Then Kevin Sinfield's bomb got away from everyone and Chev Walker touched down. In between, the Wolves could have been level, but a typically flawed piece of execution saw Brent Grose's pass to Graham Appo called forward.

There was no mistake after 16 minutes, though, when Mike Forshaw had the vision to throw out the long ball for Grose to score.

Then it was Leeds' turn to make a mess of a kick, Richard Mathers failing to knock Lee Briers' chip dead and Wood arriving to capitalise.

Briers' conversion meant that Warrington were only two points behind, but they then had a disastrous passage of play, starting with Michael Wainwright's sin-binning for obstruction.

While he was away, the Rhinos scored twice before half-time, first when Matt Diskin latched on to Mathers' lobbed pass and again when Walker exploited the extra man down the right to send Francis Cummins over and restore the 12-point gap.

Dunemann was lucky to remain on the field when he flattened Wood with a high tackle early in the second half. Wood was carried off with his leg in a splint after landing awkwardly.

McGuire set the seal on the match with a superb try, wriggling clear in his own half and again outpacing the Wolves.

The Leeds coach, Tony Smith, praised McGuire's contribution, saying:"Holy smoke, they were special tries and he's a special boy.''

Warrington: Cardiss; Appo, Grose, Westwood, Sibbit; Briers, N Wood; Leikvoll, Clarke, Hilton, Noone, Wainwright, Forshaw. Substitutes used: Burns, P Wood, Guisset, Lima.

Leeds: Mathers; Cummins, Walker, Senior, Bai; Dunemann, Burrow; McDonald, Diskin, Ward, Lauiti'iti, Jones-Buchanan, Sinfield. Substitutes used: McGuire, McKenna, Poching, McDermott.

Referee: R Smith (Castleford)