Rhinos Edge Past Wildcats
The Rhinos opened the scoring through Scott Donald early in the game, with tries from Jordan Tansey and Matt Diskin giving the home side a 16-4 advantage at the interval; Wakefield’s reply coming from Jason Demetriou.
The second half remained scoreless until the closing moments, when two tries in two minutes from Kevin Henderson and Luke George brought the Wildcats back into the game.
However, Leeds had the final say of an entertaining encounter with Ryan Hall grabbing a try on the hooter, and the departing Willie Poching kicking a long-range conversion in his final game for the club.
Warrington Wolves were the only other engage Super League side to play today, against LHF National League One neighbours Widnes Vikings at the Halton Stadium.
Having lost the last two Boxing Day games against Widnes, the Wolves were in no mood to lose for the third year in a row, and ran in ten tries to claim a crushing 62-6 win over their derby rivals.
New signing Paul Johnson was the first to score, with a brace apiece for Stuart Reardon and Chris Reilly, and further tries for Brent Grose, Lee Briers (who also kicked seven goals), Richie Barnett, Mark Gleeson and Kevin Penny.
Young winger Scott Yates was the try scorer for the Vikings, who will have to see a marked improvement in their defence.
Widnes’ rivals for the National League One title Castleford Tigers also lost out to their local rivals National League Two Featherstone Rovers in a close-fought game at the Jungle.
A young Tigers side took to the field and were 10-0 down to Rovers by the half-time interval, and despite tries by Kirk Dixon and Michael Shenton pulling the score back to 10-8, Featherstone had the final say with a try from Jamie Benn sealing the win.
Fellow promotion hopefuls Leigh Centurions had better luck in their friendly, putting National League Two Swinton Lions to the sword with a 50-0 thrashing at Hilton Park.
Batley Bulldogs were the victors at Mount Pleasant against derby rivals Dewsbury Rams in a tense, low-scoring encounter.
The score was 4-4 at half time with Bryn Powell's try for the Rams cancelled out by two goals from Jay Duffy.
Four men were sent to the bin in the second half – three of them Dewsbury players – and this was to the home side’s advantage, Alex Clemie grabbing their first try and giving them the lead, before a last-minute touch-down from Phil Farrell to settle the game.
In the sixth and final game of Boxing Day saw National League Two rivals York City Knights and Hunslet Hawks face of at Huntington Stadium, the Knights claiming a narrow 26-20 win.