Leeds 26-18 Wigan: Watkins scores in landmark game

Match stats

Leeds tries: Hall (21), Moon (25), Watkins (54), Ablett (77)
Conversions/penalties: Golding (8,22,25,50,77)

Wigan tries: Williams (13,32), Marshall (65)
Conversions/penalties: Escare (13,32,66) 

Match report

England centre Kallum Watkins celebrated his 200th appearance for Leeds with the all-important try as the Rhinos made it four victories in a row to stay level with Betfred Super League leaders Castleford.

Watkins' England team-mate George Williams threatened to ruin the party by scoring two solo tries on the day he confirmed NRL clubs were watching him but the Rhinos did just enough to secure a 26-18 victory in front of 17,030 crowd at Headingley.

Leeds chief executive Gary Hetherington had promised a review a month after the club's record 66-10 defeat by Castleford and it is safe to assume that coach Brian McDermott's job is now secure.

Wigan have now gone three games without a win to drop to fifth but only a fool would write off a successful title defence.

They had Oliver Gildart and Ryan Sutton back from injury but were still without eight members of their likely starting 13 and eight of their players were aged 21 or under.

CLICK HERE FOR FIXTURES, RESULTS & STANDINGS 

Leeds took an early lead with Ashton Golding's penalty but it did not take Williams long to show his class as he forced a goal-line drop-out with a neat grubber kick before jinking his way through the home defence for his first try after 12 minutes.

While Wigan are by no means currently a one-man team, the Rhinos' attacking threat came from all parts and they regained the lead with two tries in a five-minute spell midway through the first half.

An interception by Jimmy Keinhorst broke up a Wigan attack and Watkins ran onto Carl Ablett's pass to race clear and get winger Ryan Hall over while makeshift half-back Joel Moon took a leaf out of Williams' book by dancing his way through for a try on the last tackle.

Golding kicked both conversions to put his side 14-6 in front but Williams responded with another individual effort after 31 minutes and Morgan Escare's second goal cut the gap to just two points.

That's how it stayed until half-time after Watkins was denied a try for an obstruction by winger Tom Briscoe in the build-up and Leeds were temporarily reduced to 12 men just before the break when second rower Brett Ferres was sin-binned for a 'crusher' tackle on Gildart, who was forced out of the action with a chest injury.

That did little to cool tempers which threatened to get out of hand throughout the first half and continued to simmer after the break.

Golding increased the Rhinos' advantage with a penalty early in the second half but the pivotal moment came on 52 minutes when Wigan substitute Nick Gregson had a try disallowed for a double movement and Leeds immediately went up field to add a third try.

McGuire's long pass on halfway got Watkins running into space and he showed his class to finish off the move and extend his side's lead to 20-12.

Wigan were not done, however, and winger Liam Marshall swooped on a dropped pass by Briscoe to race over for his sixth try of his maiden Super League season and Escare was again accurate with the conversion to ensure a tense finish.

The Rhinos could only breathe more easily when Ablett charged over for their fourth try three minutes from the end and Golding kicked his fifth goal from six attempts.

Match reaction

Leeds coach Brian McDermott on Watkins: "It's just a joy to watch when he's like that.

"He backed himself. Wigan have got some speedsters and he said 'catch me if you can'.

"But I thought the pass from Danny McGuire was top drawer and Kallum's game needs to be underpinned by the likes of Carl Ablett, Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Adam Cuthbertson and those type of people.

"It was a real tiresome game. Wigan never went away, every time we threatened to put more points on them, they came back and made it a real contest."

McDermott on improved recent form: "I still don't think I can tell you it's a blip what happened four weeks ago.

"Add another four weeks of improved performances and wins and we can look back on it as a blip.

"But I knew it was a blip at the time, we just faced a really hot team on the night.

"It wasn't the case that we had four weeks to save jobs."

Wigan coach Shaun Wane: "I'm depressed. I thought we could have won it, we were just dumb, we were not smart enough.

"We had a load of young kids who gave everything but at this level effort is not enough.

"I 100 per cent expected to win, we put 17 players out there who could have won and they're devastated that they haven't and I'm devastated.

"But I don't want to take anything away from Leeds, who were the best team on the day."