Round 14 sadly saw the schedule affected by the ongoing COVID situation with the clashes between Hull Kingston Rovers/Warrington Wolves & Hull FC/Leigh Centurions both postponed.
Coote Control As Saints Topple Trinity
The round opened on Friday night as St Helens prepped for the upcoming Challenge Cup final perfectly with a 30-14 win over Wakefield Trinity at the Mobile Rocket Stadium. The visitors struck first with Mark Percival crossing inside 12 minutes with Lachlan Coote converting for 6-0. Coote added a penalty goal before improving a try from Lewis Dodd to extend the advantage to 14-0. Wakefield got off the mark with a Lee Kershaw try for 14-4 before Coote added another penalty goal to make it 16-4. The gap became a single score into the interval after Innes Senior went over and Mason Lino converted for 16-10.
Senior cut the gap further with his second try of the evening on 50 minutes for 16-14 before Coote kicked his third penalty of the game and added a self-converted try in a two minute spell to open up a 24-14 lead that ended at 30-14 with Tommy Makinson's late try which Coote improved for seven successes with the boot.
Catalans Comeback Ruins Rhinos Hopes
The first of two double clashes across this round and the re-arranged one saw Leeds Rhinos lose out 26-18 to Catalans Dragons at the Emerald Headingley Stadium with the reverse meeting planned for next Friday. The Dragons opened the scoring with a James Maloney penalty goal for 2-0 before he improved an Arthur Mourgue try to open up an 8-0 lead. Leeds responded superbly with a self-converted try from Rhyse Martin who then improved an effort from Bodene Thompson to put the hosts ahead at 12-8. The Rhinos extended their lead to 18-8 into the interval with Liam Sutcliffe crossing and Martin converting for a third time.
The second half though belonged to the Dragons as they kept their hosts scoreless while mounting a successful comeback as Matt Whitley and Fouad Yaha crossed either side of a try for Maloney with Mourgue converting the lot to seal a 28-16 victory and keep them clear at the top.
Giants Gutted After Warriors Winning Comeback
The second of the double clashes saw Wigan Warriors finally return to winning ways with a 16-12 victory over Huddersfield Giants at the DW Stadium. The two sides will meet in the re-arranged reverse clash on Friday evening and Wigan will hope to start that better than this as they fell 12-0 behind early on. Chris McQueen and Leroy Cudjoe both crossed for tries which were converted by ex-Warriors Academy half Oliver Russell they looked to be keeping the host scoreless for the first half until Liam Marshall raced over late on with Harry Smith converting for 12-6 into the interval.
Wigan continued their comeback in the second half and kept Hudds scoreless with Mitch Clark opening his Warriors account for 12-10 before a self-converted try from Smith completed the comeback and wrapped up the 16-12 win.
Rampant Red Devils Rout Youthful Tigers
Ahead of the Challenge Cup final, Castleford Tigers made sweeping changes and saw their youthful line-up outclassed in a 70-18 hammering by Salford Red Devils at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle. The Tigers opened the scoring through Grant Millington who's try was converted by Danny Richardson for a 6-0 lead that was levelled by Jack Ormondroyd's score which Krisnan Inu converted. Salford went ahead with an Oliver Roberts try (Inu conv) before Morgan Escare and Rhys Williams both crossed with Inu converting the former for a 22-6 half-time advantage.
Cas cut the gap to 22-12 with a Brad Martin try which Richardson converted before Salford resumed control with Ken Sio, Declan Patton, Matty Costello's efforts and a second score from Escare all being converted by Inu for a huge 46-12 lead before the hour mark. Chris Atkin (Inu conv) crossed to bring up the 50 point mark but Cas quelled the spree with an Alex Foster try (Richardson conv) but Salford ran in three more tries in the final five minutes with scores from Dan Norman and Ben Davies followed by a second try from Williams with Inu ending with a record of 11/12 with the boot for the 70-18 win.
Covid Woes Continue For Hull Duo
As mentioned above, the round saw two postponements which saw both Hull sides continue their wait to return to action.
Hull KR's COVID crisis came to an end but it was their opponents Warrington Wolves who suffered the blow this time around that forced postponement.
Hull FC's woes continued leaving Leigh Centurions' wait for a first win extended/
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