LAST year Hull KR became only the fifth team to win Super League. We may yet get a sixth new name on the trophy 12 months later.
Warrington marched into the fifth grand final – an event where they’ve never been successful – with a nail-biting 14-12 win over injury-hit Leeds at Headingley Stadium.
They’ll play the winner of tomorow’s Wigan-Wakefield semi after a Jake Connor penalty goal attempt from 62 metres out after the siren fell short.
The winning points came 15 minutes from the end when James McDonnell ran George Williams off the ball on a kick chase and Leeds we penalised in front, the captain’s challenge failing.
Wunderkind Ewan Irwin booted a penalty goal from in front.
Jake Connor booted what looked like a 40-20 with two minutes to go – but the captain’s challenge revealed the ball had been passed to him off the ground by Keenan Palasia.
Earlier, wounded Leeds -who lost centre Chris Hankinson in the warm-up – scored just short of halftime to leave it 12 apiece for oranges.
Second rower James Bentley opened the scoring for the Wire in the fifth minute, Ryan Hall responding in the 17th.
Leeds then grabbed the lead despite their absent friends when Jake Connor scored a superb try started with a kick and chase at 33 minutes – and that’s how it looked it would stay.
But a powerful run from close range by Warrington replacement forward Luke Yates in the shadows of halftime tied it up once more.
Maika Sivo pulled out of the Rhinos side at lunch time with a shoulder injury suffered at training.
It’s Warrington’s first grand final since 2018.
WARRINGTON 14 (Bentley Yates tries Irwin 3 goals) beat LEEDS 12 (Hall Connor tries Connor 2 goals) at Headingley Stadium. Crowd: 16,626.
Teams:
LEEDS: Fergus McCormack; Ryan Hall, Ned McCormack, Harry Newman, Riley Lumb; Brodie Croft, Jake Connor; Mikolaj Oledzki, Jarrod O’Connor, Matt Lodge, Kallum Watkins (c), James McDonnell, Keenan Palasia. Res: Cooper Jenkins, Tom Holroyd, Cameron Smith, Presley Cassell.
WARRINGTON: Josh Thewlis; Albert Hopoate, Arron Lindop, Toby King, Matty Ashton; George Williams, Ewan Irwin; Liam Byrne, Danny Walker, James Harrison, James Bentley, Sam Stone, Ben Currie. Res: Luke Yates, Sam Powell, Joe Philbin, Kalepi Tanginoa.
Referee: Chris Kendall.
