Leeds Rhinos 26

Warrington Wolves 22

ALL that fans can ask from their team is the application of maximum effort and that was the case with Warrington Wolves as their 2005 Powergen Challenge Cup dream ended at the first hurdle.

But the dream was alive until the final hooter sounded and that is testament to the abilities and fitness levels of Wolves' players, who were not only gruellingly playing their third game inside nine days but tackling the world's best club team on their own patch.

Wolves, whose guts, commitment and stubbornness in defence kept the Super League leaders scoreless for the final 27 minutes as they fought back from 26-12 down, could not quite 'do a Saints' and complete a dramatic recovery with the final play of the game.

Vice captain Nat Wood, who was playing his first game for a month and had touched down twice from superb Lee Briers kicks, knocked on at a play-the-ball as Wolves threatened the Leeds line on the sixth tackle. And then the final hooter sounded.

It was a tired mistake by Wood and although Warrington pulled themselves back to within four points with 16 minutes remaining, it was another sign of the fatigue element that Wolves did not carve open another scoring opportunity until that last ditch knock on.

Afterwards head coach Paul Cullen said: "It was an effort that pushed the bodies to breaking point. Only internally is it known the state of some of our guys coming out of the Widnes game on Tuesday night and they've pushed themselves to breaking point.

"I thought we were just a fraction short on quality and that should not detract from the guts and effort that every one of the 17 players displayed."

Most of the plaudits deservedly go to Wolves' forwards for their barnstorming work in restraining the rampage of the Rhinos pack men.

Leeds played some champagne football and their off-loads caused Wolves no end of problems.

But it was also one of those days where the bounce of the ball seemed to favour Leeds, with Mark Calderwood and Chev Walker each touching down after kicks had deflected kindly off Wolves players.

Perhaps the other side of the coin is that Wolves should be kicking themselves for getting so close to a first win in eight games against Leeds and not finishing the job.

They conceded a lot of penalties in the first half and Briers' accurate kicking game was slow to materialise, although when it did Leeds struggled under the pressure.

Some outstanding work was cancelled out by errors too. While Briers' successful 40/20 kick laid the platform for Jon Clarke to put Wolves ahead for the first time, moments later his kick straight over the touchline was the foundation for Leeds to touch down and turn around with a 16-12 lead.

The Challenge Cup dream is over but the season is far from finished if Wolves can maintain and improve on Saturday's showing.

Match facts

Powergen Challenge Cup fourth round, April 2, 2005

Leeds Rhinos 26

Warrington Wolves 22

Rhinos: Richard Mathers; Mark Calderwood, Chev Walker, Keith Senior, Marcus Bai; Kevin Sinfield, Rob Burrow; Ryan Bailey, Andrew Dunemann, Danny Ward, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Chris McKenna, Gareth Ellis. Subs used: Willie Poching, Danny McGuire, Nick Scruton, Liam Botham.

Wolves: Brent Grose; Henry Fa'afili, Martin Gleeson, Chris Bridge, Dean Gaskell; Lee Briers, Nat Wood; Mark Hilton, Mark Gleeson, Paul Wood, Ben Westwood, Mike Wainwright, Jon Clarke. Subs used: Danny Lima, Graham Appo, Warren Stevens, Chris Leikvoll.

Referee: Steve Ganson

Scoring: Gaskell fumbles Sinfield's kick and McKenna puts Burrow over, 4mins, 4-0; Ward's quick play-the-ball catches out Wolves and Dunemann feeds McKenna to cross, 11mins, Sinfield goals, 10-0; Briers angles grubber kick for Nat Wood to touch down, 17mins, Bridge boots the extras, 10-6; Briers' 40/20 leads to Clarke charging over, 40mins, Bridge converts, 10-12; Briers kicks straight into touch and then Calderwood supports Burrow's dash to go over after his initial kick ricochets off Bridge, 40+mins, Sinfield converts, 16-12; Burrow darts from halfway and scores after combining with Mathers and McGuire, 46mins, 20-12; Burrow's kick deflects off Bridge into path of Walker who steers to the posts, 53mins, Sinfield hits the mark, 26-12; Nat Wood juggles the ball from Briers' chip kick before touching down, 55mins, Bridge tags on goal, 26-18; Westwood weaves over from Briers' pass, 64mins, 26-22.

Pens: Rhinos 8 Wolves 7

Scrums: Rhinos 4 Wolves 6

Attendance: 8,215

Warrington Guardian top men: Mike Wainwright 3pts, Mark Gleeson 2pts, Lee Briers 1pt

Interesting note: Wolves have won one of five Challenge Cup meetings with Leeds at Headingley

- that was in the 1900/01 season.

Table to date

P W D L F A Pt

Leeds 8 7 0 1 304 122 14

St Helens 8 6 0 2 275 165 12

Wigan 8 5 0 3 215 145 10

Hull 8 5 0 3 195 168 10

London 8 4 0 4 276 172 8

Bradford 8 4 0 4 231 212 8

Huddersfield 8 4 0 4 202 200 8

Wakefield 8 4 0 4 205 300 8

Salford 8 3 0 5 146 171 6

Warrington 8 3 0 5 150 202 6

Widnes 8 2 0 6 150 332 4

Leigh 8 1 0 7 130 291 2

Story so far

Apps T G Dg Pts TM

1 Brent Grose 9 1 0 0 4 1

2 Henry Fa'afili 9 5 0 0 20 0

3 Martin Gleeson 9 5 0 0 20 1

4 Toa Kohe-Love 7 1 0 0 4 1

5 Dean Gaskell 9 0 0 0 0 0

6 Lee Briers 9 3 17 0 46 7

7 Nathan Wood 4 4 0 0 16 0

8 Chris Leikvoll 4+1 0 0 0 0 0

9 Jon Clarke 9 6 0 0 24 5

10 Mark Hilton 8 1 0 0 4 6

11 Logan Swann 6 0 0 0 0 4

12 Mike Wainwright 9 1 0 0 4 6

13 Paul Noone 1+1 0 0 0 0 0

14 Mark Gleeson 7+2 0 0 0 0 9

15 Ben Westwood 7+2 3 0 0 12 9

16 Paul Wood 2+2 0 0 0 0 0

17 Danny Lima 2+7 0 0 0 0 0

18 Graham Appo 2+5 1 0 0 4 0

19 Daryl Cardiss 0 0 0 0 0 0

20 Warren Stevens 0+7 0 0 0 0 0

21 Simon Grix 0 0 0 0 0 0

22 Steve Pickersgill 0+3 0 0 0 0 0

23 Andrew Bracek 0+5 0 0 0 0 0

25 Chris Bridge 4 1 5 0 14 5

26 Nicky Royle 0 0 0 0 0 0

Key: TM is top man accumulated score based on Warrington Guardian man of the match ratings