Devils pay the price at hands of super-sub
SALFORD suffered late heartbreak last night as substitute Liam Sutcliffe came off the bench to score the winning try for Leeds in a 20-14 victory.
The Red Devils had fallen behind to a Ryan Hall try and Rob Burrow penalty – but went into half-time 8-6 up courtesy of tries from Gareth O’Brien and Kris Welham.
Danny McGuire’s kick had laid on the Rhinos’ opener and it was his break that gave Jimmy Keinhorst the opportunity to edge the home side back in front just after the break.
Another Burrow penalty made it 14-8 but Logan Tomkins’ converted try set up a tense last 10 minutes.
Both sides spurned opportunities to win it before Sutcliffe handed Leeds their eighth straight home victory over Salford in Super League.
In last night’s other matches Leigh Centurions recorded their first victory since winning promotion with a hard-fought 24-16 success over St Helens at the Sports Village. After defeats against Castleford and Leeds, Neil Jukes’ side showed tremendous character to upset their illustrious rivals by hanging on in front of 9,012 fans.
And it was a former St Helens player – Leigh captain Micky Higham – who grabbed the crucial try 13 minutes from the end.
In trademark style he scooted 20 metres from dummy-half to score by the posts and with Ben Reynolds adding the conversion, the Centurions led 22-10.
Leigh still had to hold off a Saints fightback in the closing stages but they could only muster an Alex Walmsley try with nine minutes remaining.
Wigan recovered from a 14-point deficit to beat Widnes 28-26 in a controversially and hastily-rearranged clash at the Select Security Stadium.
The newly-crowned world club champions were supposed to host the Vikings last night only for the game to be called off following Thursday’s storms, and then switched to the Cheshire ground at short notice.
The circumstances surrounding the initial cancellation are to be investigated by the Rugby Football League, but the Warriors put the issue aside with a thrilling late fightback.
A Wigan win seemed unlikely after the hour, as Widnes led 26-12 after tries from Lloyd White, Danny Craven, Tom Armstrong and Stefan Marsh.
But the visitors hit back with two tries from Joe Burgess, another from Lewis Tierney and a late winner from Oliver Gildart, his second of the night.
Warrington are now bottom of the table after their 30-22 home defeat to new league leaders Castleford.