Rugby League: Dazzling display leaves Leeds blinded: Inspired Davies guides Warrington back to the top

Warrington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Leeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

THE most impressive of purple patches took the primrose and blue stripes of Warrington back to the top of the Championship in dazzling style yesterday.

A sequence of four tries in nine minutes early in the first half ripped Leeds' defence, showing all the resilience of a wet paper bag, to shreds.

All four tries were scored by wingers in the corners, three of them by Mark Forster, making it five in his last three games after failing to score in his

previous 13.

It was all even more astonishing in that it followed Leeds taking the lead in the fifth minute, when Ellery Hanley's power took him close to the line and the three tacklers who stopped him could not disengage themselves quickly enough to prevent Alan Tait darting down the blind side for a try which Graham Holroyd converted.

Warrington were bound to slow down after their frenetic burst of scoring and it was on the half hour before they crossed again, Lee Penny profiting from some more excellent handling after his forwards had won a scrum against the feed.

Jonathan Davies nudged Warrington further ahead with a penalty after the break, but Leeds managed to recover some pride by lifting their game considerably, tries from Francis Cummins and Richie Eyres bringing them within eight points. But Warrington were not going to commit the unpardonable sin of letting this one slip. An inspired few minutes from Davies saw to that, with a side-stepping try, a 48-yard drop goal and another try made for Myler.

Davies rounded off the scoring in injury time by putting over a long-range penalty after Simon Irving had completed Leeds' misery by being sent off for a high tackle.

Warrington: Penny; Forster, Bateman, Davies, Myler; Ellis, Mackey; Teitzel (Hilton, 16), Thursfield, Phillips, Elliott (Darbyshire, 6), Gregory (Elliott, 68), Shelford.

Leeds: Tait; Fallon, Irving, Cummins, Scales; Holroyd, Stephens; Harmon (Rose, 32, Harmon, 70), Lowes, Howard (O'Neill, 70), O'Neill (Vassilakopoulos, 32), Eyres, Hanley.

Referee: D Campbell (Widnes).

Wigan given fright, Page 28