MATCH SUMMARY Wigan (12) 14 Tries: Radlinski 2 Goals: Tickle 3 Leeds (16) 38 Tries: Senior 2, Poching, Botham, Bai, Lauitiiti, Calderwood Goals: Sinfield 4, Burrow

It was a tight contest for an hour but the Warriors' defence cracked three times in the final quarter.

Centre Keith Senior grabbed two first-half tries for Leeds as they came back from 12-6 down.

Kris Radlinski was Wigan's best player with two tries but the Warriors scored just two points after the break.

A greasy surface meant there were errors from both sides and little momentum early on, and the game was further opened up when Wigan's Jerry Seuseu and Barrie McDermott of Leeds were sin-binned for fighting after 11 minutes.

The scoreline was disappointing - we dropped too much ball second half and Leeds got on a bit of a roll Denis Betts

But Leeds gradually gained the upper hand and cut loose in the final stages of the game, Mark Calderwood's sealing victory with Leeds' seventh try in the last minute.

Wigan cut the gap to just two points with a penalty after 57 minutes but they failed to re-gather the kick-off and, from the perfect attacking position, Leeds substitute Liam Botham scored only his second try for the club to break the deadlock.

Wigan coach Denis Betts admitted his team's failure to re-gather the kick-off after reducing the deficit to two points with a penalty on 57 minutes opened the way for Leeds to romp home.

"It was my call but hindsight is a wonderful thing," he said.

"We'd been under a lot of pressure and felt the goal would have given us a break. I had no idea they weren't going to catch the ball from the kick-off.

I thought we were very, very good but we had to be Tony Smith

"The scoreline was disappointing. We dropped too much ball second half and Leeds got on a bit of a roll."

But Rhinos coach Tony Smith felt the Warriors had made his team work hard for their record victory.

"I thought we were very, very good but we had to be," Smith said.

"They made it very difficult in the first half. I thought they were tenacious and took some breaking down.

"We came up with two blemishes in the first half which were punished but, other aside from that, I thought we were pretty good defensively."

Wigan: Radlinski, Dallas, Brown, Vaealiki, Aspinwall, Orr, Moran, Seu Seu, Newton, Guisset, Hansen, Tickle, Wild. Replacements: Godwin, Allen, Colbon, Hargreaves.

Leeds: Mathers, Calderwood, Walker, Senior, Bai, Sinfield, Burrow, Bailey, Dunemann, McDermott, Lauitiiti, Poching, Jones-Buchanan. Replacements: McGuire, Scruton, Smith, Botham.