Salford 24-30 Leeds

Leeds secured the League Leaders’ Shield with a battling victory over Salford to spoil Robbie Paul‘s final Super League game.

Paul has played in every season of Super League since its formation in 1996 but will move to Championship 1 side Leigh for 2010.

He was denied a victorious send off as the Rhinos sealed top spot with a 30-20 victory.

Salford started well and found themselves 12-0 up after 24 minutes thanks to converted tries from Luke Adamson and Jon Wilshere.

But Leeds were back on track by half time as first Kallum Watkins and then debutant Jay Pitts went over for tries, with Lee Smith adding both goals to make it 12-12 at the break.

Leeds looked to have made the game safe with tries from Luke Burgess, Brent Webb and Carl Ablett to go 30-12 up, but Salford rallied late on when Stuart Littler and Stefan Ratchford crossed, but it was too little too late for the home side, who finish in 13th place with 14 points.