Warrington and Leeds delivered a contest befitting of the occasion as Super League’s 5,000th game saw the Wolves edge a thrilling finale that was not without controversy to edge out Brad Arthur’s Rhinos.
Super League began in Paris 29 years ago to the day on Saturday, and two sides who have endured a contrasting history in the competition’s biggest games met here knowing the winners would go third in the early-season standings.
While Warrington have yet to win the competition – and are without a league title since 1955 – only St Helens have more titles than Leeds’ tally of eight.
And on a milestone night, it was the Wolves who scored the winning try with four minutes remaining courtesy of Jake Thewlis, seconds after Leeds’ Keenan Palasia was controversially sin-binned for a high tackle on Lachlan Fitzgibbon. The Rhinos had led for over 50 minutes to that point but when it mattered most, Warrington struck the decisive blow.
Sam Burgess was forced to change his entire three-quarter line here, following a glut of injuries during last weekend’s victory at St Helens.
That win represented Warrington’s best performance of 2025 thus far and they started in equally-impressive fashion here against the Rhinos, taking the lead with a sensational individual try scored by one of those replacements.
Arron Lindop was freed on the right and he audaciously kicked over the top of Leeds’ full-back, Lachie Miller, before regathering and winning a race to the line to open the scoring. Marc Sneyd converted to make it 6-0, and that Lindop try lit the touchpaper for the remainder of the first half, with the intensity of both sides going up a notch.
But it was the visitors who responded to that early setback superbly, with Jake Connor at the heart of everything they did well. And it was Connor that set up the try which levelled the scores, as his deft pass sent James McDonnell through a huge gap in the Warrington line to make it 6-6 after Leeds kept the ball alive brilliantly on the last tackle.
Ten minutes later, Leeds produced another brilliant team try with Connor the chief conductor once again. The Rhinos went right and then left in pursuit of a gap before Connor’s sublime cut-out pass dissected the Warrington line and gave Riley Lumb a walk-in at the corner.
Connor would pull his second conversion attempt wide having kicked the first, but Leeds were suddenly good value for the four-point lead they had established. And while it remained 10-6 to the visitors at half-time the Wolves were perhaps fortunate not to fall further behind as the interval approached, with the Rhinos doing most of the probing and looking likelier to score next.
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And nine minutes after the restart, with Leeds continuing in the same manner they ended the first half in, they did get the try they deserved. Connor wasn’t involved this time, but it was still superb from the Rhinos – with Lachie Miller’s cut-out pass finding Ryan Hall unmarked and allowing Super League’s all-time top try-scorer to claim his 257th score and open up an eight-point lead.
But Warrington then responded. Stefan Ratchford, another of the players brought in by Burgess, stretched out to score after a wonderful pass from the England captain, George Williams: before a hugely dramatic final five minutes. Palasia was adjudged to have made contact with the head of Fitzgibbon, despite the initial contact appearing to be below the head.
And within 30 seconds, Warrington worked the ball wide and found the space from Palasia’s sin-binning to allow Thewlis to score in the corner.