Two-try Ash Handley helped Leeds inflict yet more misery on woeful Warrington - the one-time title hopefuls now in freefall.
The prolific winger, who scored a hat-trick on his England debut against France here in April, scored twice as Rhinos surged into a 16-0 lead inside just 15 minutes. Given how bad the wretched Wolves were, even so early it was always going to be enough. Daryl Powell’s side beat Leeds 42-10 in their season opener in February, starting a run of eight successive wins.
But, despite still being just two points off top, they are now scarily unrecognisable from that side and have lost five of their last six games. It’s little wonder Powell had his head in his hands so often last night with disgruntled fans booing them off. Warrington looked completely rudderless without injured England captain George Williams and devoid of ideas.
But they self-imploded continually, especially prop Sam Kasiano. He got himself needlessly yellow-carded and, when he returned, threw the ball away and got penalised twice for dissent inside a minute. They didn’t get off the mark until Matty Ashton’s scratchy 62nd minute try.
But excellent Leeds quickly ended faint hopes of a comeback when props Sam Lisone and Sam Walters showed them how to create, lovely hands putting Richie Myler over seven minutes later. Rohan Smith’s side carried on from where they left off against Huddersfield last Friday. Blake Austin was superb in that 54-0 destruction and the Aussie stand-off was in the mood again last night.
It was his classy break which saw Aidan Sezer put Wigan-bound Walters over for their first try. Rhinos messed up the restart but - not for the last time - hapless Warrington never looked like scoring. Instead, it was the confident visitors who marched up field with alarming ease before Myler’s perfect cut-out pass sent Handley in at the corner.
He added his second soon after. Rhinos opted to run the ball on the last tackle and Cameron Smith’s excellent long ball left woeful Warrington all at sea, Rhyse Martin this time providing the final pass. Martin slotted the second of his three goals and things looked like getting worse for Wolves when Kasiano was sin-binned in the 22nd minute having only just come onto the field.
The big prop aimed a needless third-man effort at Handley and referee Chris Kendall deemed it as a shoulder charge. Bizarrely, though, Powell’s side played better when down to 12 men. They didn't concede any points, at least.
