Leeds seal place in Grand Final as Wigan’s season comes to an end

Leeds Rhinos sealed their place in the Betfred Super League Grand Final with a 20-4 victory over Wigan Warriors thanks to a try from Jarrad O’Connnor and a double from James Bentley.

The win means Leeds will face the winner of the second Semi-Final which consists of Salford Red Devils and the winners of the League Leaders’ Shield, St Helens and takes place on Saturday afternoon.

It was a cagey start to the first half as both sides traded set for set without laying a glove on their respective defences.

And with a first real opening of the half, the Warriors took full advantage with Harry Smith grabbing another assist after finding Marshall who drove around the Leeds on-rushing defence to get the ball down in the corner whilst avoiding going into touch.

Whilst points were on the board, it felt like the game took a while to really get going which was to be expected given the magnitude of the occasion with a place in the 2022 Grand Final up for grabs.

There was a couple of big hits on former Wigan man Zak Hardaker from Liam Marshall in between the sticks before the Yorkshireman looked to be through for the Rhinos but was brought down by Smith just before half-way.

But, as Leeds began to get going and finally put the Warriors defence under some pressure, they were able to half the deficit when Hardaker opted to take the two from ten metres out just four minutes from the half-time hooter which left the score 4-2 at the interval.

As the second half got underway, the Rhinos came out all guns blazing and within the opening ten minutes of the second forty minutes, they had two tries to their name. Firstly, through Jarrad O’Connor who caught the Warriors defence asleep before James Bentley slid over to give the Rhinos a 14-4 lead.

One of Wigan’s players of the season Bevan French limped off with what looked like an ankle injury which was sustained late in the first half as he lost his footing on a breakaway to make Wigan’s job even more complicated.

With half-an-hour left on the clock, matters went from bad to worse for the Warriors who had a man sent off after John Bateman was given his marching orders by referee Liam Moore for a late and high tackle of Aiden Sezer.

Wigan looked to have found a way back into the game with 20 minutes to go as Harry Smith’s kick found Liam Marshall on the far side. The winger slammed down for what he believed to be his second try of the evening, but it was chalked off by the video referee after it looked as though Marshall didn’t have full control.

But as the disallowed try seemed to be take the stuffing out of Wigan, James Bentley doubled his tally for the evening and put Leeds into the Grand Final as the Rhinos made their extra man count and the space began to open up for the visitors.

Wigan did finally break the Rhinos defence once more with Sam Powell going over to score on his 250^th Wigan appearance, but it was too little too late for the Warriors who didn’t have enough to properly break down this unbelievable Leeds defence.

As the final hooter sounded, Leeds’ packed away end erupted with noise as their place in the Betfred Super League grand final was confirmed.

After turning around what looked to be set up for a dire season for Rhinos fans, Rohan Smith has done nothing short of a remarkable job with this Leeds side for the second half of 2022, and it would be daft to doubt them heading into Saturday’s final.

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