When the Warrington Wolves and the Leeds Rhinos met at the Halliwell-Jones at the beginning of last month, the Wolves ran out as 25-14 winners. With just one loss in their last eight games the visitors presented a big challenge to a Rhinos side who were looking to cement their place in the top four.

The Rhinos announced a side with just one change of the bench from the side that lost to Castleford at the Magic Weekend, but Warrington made a few changes including welcoming Ashton Sims back after a one game ban in place of Lee Westwood was out with a broken hand.

It was a glorious evening in Leeds and the stage was set for an open game between two sides who like to give the ball some air and score spectacular tries. Leeds were slight favourites with the bookies but on paper it really was anyones.

The Rhinos were immediately under pressure, knocking on the first kick and then being forced to drop out under their own sticks. But the Rhinos weathered the onslaught and were first to register points on thirteen minutes when Matt Parcell supported a Tom Briscoe break to cover the last five metres outpacing Stefan Ratchford to dive in. Liam Sutcliffe added the conversion.

The Rhinos kept up the pressure and on the half hour, following two quick penalties, Liam Sutcliffe took a Danny McGuire pass and broke the Wolves line to go over in the right corner. The Rhinos centre failed to add the conversion and the Rhinos led by 10-0.

On thirty-six Tom Lineham moved off the mark when playing the ball and Sutcliffe goaled the penalty from thirty metres to edge the Rhinos two points further ahead at the interval.

Just three second half minutes had elapsed when Parcell went from acting half-back to jink past two tacklers and score under the sticks. Sutcliffe added the extras and the Rhinos had an 18-0 lead.

Within five minutes Jamie Jones-Buchanan took a Rob Burrow short ball to go twenty metres to outpace the cover defence and dive over the line. Sutcliffe missed the conversion but Warrington’s task was looking increasingly difficult.

As the Wolves tried to force the pass they started making errors and their frustrations increased. A covering tackle from Jack Hughes denied Kallum Watkins an interception try on the hour mark while in back play a fracas broke out which saw Daryl Clark and Stevie Ward sin-binned.

A minute after the double sin-binning Joel Moon tormented the Wolves defence and found his way to the line off an Adam Cuthbertson offload. Sutcliffe kicked the extras for 28-0 and the two points were going to the Rhinos.

On sixty-six a Wolves ball steal gifted Sutcliffe another two pointer and on sixty-nine a Rob Burrow break allowed him to find Parcell in support on the Warrington’s twenty and the Rhinos hooker completed his hat-trick. Sutcliffe added the extras for 36-0, the Rhinos were running riot.

The icing on the Rhinos cake was a Rob Burrow seventy metre solo effort picking up from acting half back and outpacing Stefan Ratchford. Sutcliffe failed to add the extras but the Rhinos had demolished the Wolves, keeping them scoreless while running in forty points, the Rhinos biggest winning margin over the Wolves at Headingley.

The Wolves were in the game for the opening ten minutes but the Rhinos dominated the remaining seventy. Warrington never looked like scoring as Moon, McGuire, Cuthbertson and Parcell tormented their line and ran over seven tries in a masterful performance which lifts them into third place in the table. The Wolves retain their top eight spot, thanks to other results going their way, but they are starting to lose touch with the top four spot that their fans demand.

Rhinos: Golding, Briscoe, Sutcliffe (T, 6G), Watkins, Hall, McGuire, Moon (T), Cuthbertson, Parcell (3T), Singleton, Ferres, Ward (SB), Jones-Buchanan (T). Subs: Mullally, Delaney, Burrow (T), Baldwinson.

Wolves: Ratchford, Russell, Hughes, Atkins, Lineham, Brown, Gidley, Hill, Clark (SB), Sims, Jullien, Westerman, Cooper. Subs: King, Crosby, Philbin, Patton.

Referee: James Child.

Half-Time: 12-0.

Full-Time: 40-0.

Attendance: .