Leeds Rhinos' apparent Super League dominance took a knock in their latest match at home to Warrington. After a storming start to their campaign had seen them lose just once in 11 league matches, they were undone by Warrington Wolves once again on their home ground. That surprise loss allowed both St Helens and Wigan Warriors to reduce the gap at the top of the table with solid victories. Huddersfield moved up to 4th with an away win at Hull FC.
The solitary blot on Leeds' record had been away at Warrington's Halliwell Jones Stadium, but the Rhinos have been in tremendous form ever since.
The Wolves seem to have their measure at present though and repeated the feat at Headingley with a storming display to win 29-10.
They were in control throughout and led 14-4 at half-time, as Gene Ormsby, Joel Monaghan and Ashton Sims all scored tries for them. Leeds' only points in the first 40 minutes came just before the break from international centre Kallum Watkins.
Things hardly improved after the interval for Leeds, with further tries from Ben Currie and Roy Asotasi compounding the home side's misery. Stefan Ratchford's kicking was also to the fore, with four goals on the night. Mitch Achurch did bring some semblance of respectability to the score line to add a further try for the hosts, but it was little consolation.
To add salt into their wounds, Declan Patton added a drop goal for good measure.
St Helens took full advantage of Leeds' slip to close to within four points of the league leaders, as they defeated Widnes Vikings 34-16 at home. A close first-half saw both sides level at 12-12. Tries by Kevin Brown and Joe Mellor for Widnes, sandwiched Luke Walsh and Travis Burns' scores for the hosts.
Saints ran out comfortable winners after the break though, scoring four further tries to their opponents' one. Alex Walmsley, Matty Fleming, Tommy Makinson and Mark Percival were the men crossing the whitewash for the reigning champions. In reply, Matt Whitley briefly stemmed the flow for Widnes.
Wigan lie 3rd, just a point behind Saints.
They took a 40-22 victory away at bottom club Wakefield Wildcats, as Joe Burgess helped himself to a hat-trick of tries for the Warriors. The game featured a rather unsavoury mass brawl at the end of the 1st period, resulting in a man apiece going to the sin bin.
Huddersfield's 4th spot was confirmed by a 24-4 success away at in-form Hull FC. Danny Brough was once again involved in the action, scoring the opening try and two goals.
