In the sunshine at Belle Vue, with the stadium and pitch coming along brilliantly, Wakefield Trinity and Leeds Rhinos battled in perfect rugby conditions.
The Rhinos fired an early warning shot when a Cameron Smith offload released Mikolaj Oledzki. The rampant prop powered through using footwork to get somewhat passed Max Jowitt but in the end his offload went to ground.
The Rhinos carved through again a couple of minutes later with Blake Austin’s dummy opening Wakefield up but as he took on Jowitt he simply dropped the ball.
After those missed chances, Wakefield struck first. A kick to the corner from Will Dagger was batted back to Jack Croft completing an amazing story for the centre going from stretchered off to scoring in a week. It came after Leeds had been tackled on the last inside their own 30.
Leeds bombed a third try as they attacked the Wakefield line. They managed to create an overlap with a long ball out to Nene MacDonald. However, he dropped the ball.
Wakefield immediately punished them with a similar move of their own with Romain Franco finishing in the corner for a debut try.
It was the first time Wakefield have led by 10 points this season and the first time that they have scored first since Round One.
The upset of the season looked on but Leeds began to turn things around. Richie Myler’s dummy allowed the Rhinos halfback to cut through before finding Cameron Smith in support to score before a 40/20 from Blake Austin gave Leeds the field position to strike with Leon Ruan powering over for a debut try.
Both sides needed some composure in the second 40 but the first few minutes were error strewn. After one error, Hugo Salabio was sent off. In his frustration and on debut he scooped up Richie Myler and dumped him in a WWE style tackle.
However, man down, Wakefield took the lead again when a Blake Austin drop out went out on the full and Dagger nailed the penalty.
Austin owed Leeds for that and the early missed chance and he made amends bursting through a gap and backing himself from long range to fend off Max Jowitt and score in the corner to make it 14-12.
Leeds didn’t stay ahead for long. An error from the kick off and a penalty for offside allowed Dagger to level matters.
Then Wakefield produced a lovely move from deep as if they had the extra man. As Franco kicked ahead, Handley was judged to have taken him out and was sin binned and Trinity immediately punished Leeds with Matty Ashurst scoring to put Wakefield ahead.
Then a crucial try as Morgan Smith capitalised on an error from Myler from a kick to make it 24-14.
