One 9/10, a 5 & lots of 8s in Peter Smith's Leeds Rhinos player ratings from 36-12 win v Warrington Wolves

Connor scored a try, set up two others and kicked four goals in Leeds’ fifth successive win, which was much more comprehensive than seemed likely at half-time when they led 8-0. Warrington made Rhinos work hard, particularly in a scoreless opening 34 minutes, but Leeds rattled up 20 points in 10 minutes either side of the break to effectively take the game away from the visitors. At times, Rhinos played some lovely attacking rugby.

A week after their agonising Challenge Cup final defeat by Hull KR, Warrington - who lost Arron Lindop to what is feared to be a serious knee injury - showed commendable grit, but ran out of steam and couldn’t cope with Leeds’ attack in the second half. Rhinos missed a series of early chances, but retained their patience and composure and were eventually rewarded with six tries.

It was a fine all-round effort, but on current form Connor deserves his place at the top of the Man of Steel chart. When Lachie Miller picked up a calf injury in the previous game against Wakefield Trinity, Rhinos dropped off following Connor’s switch to full-back. Coach Brad Arthur was able to rest MIller in the final quarter on Saturday, but this time Connor stayed in the halves, Ash Handley moved to full-back and Kallum Watkins came back on at centre.

Early on it was a story of missed chances. Harry Newman was held up over Warrington’s line after 16 minutes and soon afterwards Miller had a touchdown ruled out for a knock-on, video official Tom Grant agreeing with referee Chris Kendall’s on-field call. Kendall also needed a second opinion when Paul Vaughan grounded the ball short of the line with the referee about a metre away and staring right at it.

Newman thought he had scored from Brodie Croft’s pass and Kendall handed that on as a try, but Grant ruled it out for an alleged obstruction by James McDonnell. Leeds finally broke the deadlock when Jarrod O’Connor’s pass from acting-half sent Cameron Smith through a huge gap. That came after Croft’s tackle forced opposite number George Wiliams to lose possession.

Connor converted and then booted a penalty as the half ended on a bizarre note, Morgan Gannon being tackled high by James Harrison after the hooter had sounded. A couple of minutes after the break, Connor’s kick on the last was finished by Smith, via Miller’s catch and offload and then Croft went over in the next set to make it 20-0. Josh Thewlis pulled a try back from a George Williams-Lachlan Fitzgibbon combination, but an error from the restart allowed substitute Tom Holroyd – who had a strong game – to power in and Connor increased the lead with a fine solo try.

Wolves stuck at it and grabbed a consolation through Ben Currie, with Marc Sneyd landing his second conversion, but Morgan Gannon plunged over on the final play of the game and Kallum Watkins celebrated his 400th career game by landing the conversion, to delight most of the 14,306 crowd. Both sides managed to keep 13 players on the field throughout and there were only four penalties. They were shared and all came in the first half. Leeds had two set-restarts to Wolves’ one.

Leeds Rhinos: Miller, Hall, Newman, Handley, Lumb, Croft, Connor, Oledzki, O’Connor, Palasia, Gannon, McDonnell, Watkins. Subs T Holroyd, Lisone, Bentley, C Smith.

Warrington Wolves: Josh Thewlis, Lindop, King, Tai, Wrench, Williams, Sneyd, Yates, Powell, Vaughan, A Holroyd, Fitzgibbon, Currie. Subs Harrison, Philbin, Crowther, Wood.

Referee: Chris Kendall (Huddersfield). Attendance: 14,306.