Wakefield mark Super League return with shock victory over Leeds
Wakefield Trinity marked their return to Super League with a surprise victory at West Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos, as an opening weekend filled with shocks continued.
The Rhinos have undergone another expensive off-season overhaul as they enter an eighth season since their last Super League title. The expectation here was that they would be too strong and too powerful for a Wakefield side not only playing their first game back in Super League since promotion, but without a number of key forwards due to an early-season injury crisis.
But Daryl Powell's side were magnificent and worthy winners to start their campaign with an excellent victory. After Leigh's historic 1-0 win at Wigan on Thursday and Hull FC's winat Catalans on Friday, this was the latest indicator that Super League could be shaping up to be more unpredictable than ever in 2025: which can only be a good thing for the competition.
Three tries in 10 minutes for Wakefield proved to be the difference. After a fairly even opening quarter, Leeds combusted in that 10-minute period to fall 14-0 behind in the blink of an eye. Wakefield broke the deadlock when they kept the ball alive superbly on the last tackle, leading to Max Jowitt crossing before converting to make it 6-0.
Three minutes later, Jowitt then finished a sublime break from Jake Trueman, who was the star on his Wakefield debut, to make it 10-0 before Mason Lino capitalised on a shocking Jake Connor error to touch down a loose ball to compound Leeds' misery.
The Rhinos narrowed the deficit two minutes before the break with a much-needed moment, when Harry Newman grounded a Brodie Croft kick to reduce the arrears to eight at half-time. But in truth, that was nothing more than a false dawn for Leeds, who seriously flattered to deceive all afternoon.
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They huffed and puffed with little success throughout a timid and laboured second half. Not even when Wakefield were reduced to 12 men after Mason Lino's sin-binning could they craft an opening to score again. By the time they finally did, when Sam Lisone powered over from close-range, there were just 20 seconds remaining and Wakefield saw off that period with minimal fuss to claim victory against the odds.
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