St Helens 22-20 Castleford Tigers;
Both sides wanted to gain the two points after dramatic losses to their derby rivals (Wigan and Wakefield) on a not so good Friday; both sides only lost by minimal margins, and it's fair to say that both sides were probably better than the ones that took home the two points. Anyway, back to their Easter Monday game. It was nothing less dramatic than the Good Friday matches as Francis Meli scored a try in the final minute to draw level with classy Cas who had an 8 point lead with a quarter of an hour to go looked certs to go top of the league, however, an Ade Gardner try clawed Saints back within four points of them and in the last open play of the game Francis Meli went over to score the try, with the ever so cool Jamie Foster converting to win by 2 points and go top of the league, even if it was just for one night!
Leeds Rhinos 34-16 Crusaders RL;
After Crusaders' thrashing of the Huddersfield Giants last Friday confidence was definitely high going into this game against Leeds. Leeds kept Crusaders under much better control than the Giants did and were clearly inspired by the return of Danny McGuire. Leeds scored three quickfire tries after Danny McGuire came on and soon had a 24-0 lead but the Crusaders never gave up and ran in three tries themselves. A couple more Leeds tries sealed the victory and they managed 4/4 points over the Easter period. Could the return of Danny McGuire kick-fire their season? Maybe.
Warrington Wolves 10-24 Hull FC;
Hull came back from 10-0 down to make sure Wire wouldn't be top of Super League that night (after Saints' victory, of course). Joel Monaghan and Rhys Williams were the first half try scorers for Warrington who failed to score in the second half. Warrington put ball to ground and scuppered a few chances in the second half, but despite their performance at the beginning of the match they didn't really look like winning. Kirk Yeaman scored in the final minute after Adrian Morley made a handling error which Yeaman pounced on. There were plenty of bone crunching tackles in this match and there were sure to be a few sore bodies the morning after!
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 0-26 Wigan Warriors;
Wigan looked a very tired side after their last gasp victory against local rivals St Helens last Friday, it was a ferocious, bruising encounter. Wakefield struggled against the reigning champions and their heroic efforts to beat Castleford last week clearly showed, so much so they couldn't break through the Warriors' defence but they did have plenty of opportunities to attack which the couldn't turn into points, which was unfortunate for them. It could have been a much bigger score line for Wigan and it might well have been if the turn around in matches over the Easter period, but lucky for Shakey Wakey it wasn't. Wakefield coach - one of the most honest in Super League - was full of praise for his boys, but more so Wigan and superstar Sam Tomkins.
Hull KR 37-24 Harlequins RL;
Harlequins' losing streak stretched to 7 on the trot after Hull KR beat them on Easter Monday. The latter started the game much better than their London rivals scoring 12 points quickly. Harlequins clawed two tries back to draw level on 12 all before Michael Dobson and Ben Galea both scored for the Robins to regain their 12 point advantage. Harlequins weren't to go down without a fight and themselves scored twice more to go 24 all, Hull KR again losing a 12 point advantage. A converted Scott Murrell try for KR meant that Quins would have to score a converted try to get back level, they failed to do so and a Dobson field goal and a Ben Fisher try sealed the victory for Hull KR.
Catalan Dragons 8-8 Bradford Bulls;
A game that will be probably be remembered more so for the electrical storms that caused Sky's coverage to go a tad wild and we lost the game completely for a second quarter, meaning we had to sit and watch sky sports news reel off the football results and tables 50 times over, despite the fact we were supposedly going to be kept up to date with the score. Sky sorted things out and we were back with Eddie, Stevo and co in the South of France at half time. We had sort of seen Ben Farrar's try for the home side in the first half but by the time Bradford had scored to level at 6 all we had lost all coverage. That was the half time score. Much ball was put to ground throughout the match due to the worsening conditions in Perpignan, and the dry, fast style rugby that both sides wanted to play was never going to happen. Both sides had penalties which they both converted making the score line 8-8. Nearer the end of the match both teams tried to get the field goals they wanted, but they both failed to do so and the game ended in a draw.
The Huddersfield-Salford full match review will be up on Wednesday some time. The Giants won the match and returned to the top of the league. This is how the Super League table looks after round 12;
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