Monday 18 June 2018 15:46, UK
Danny Richardson's magic, Huddersfield's resolve, Greg Burke's revenge, highlights from a round 18 fixture list dominated by St Helens' titanic battle with Leeds Rhinos.
Monday's rugby league reflection has a strong St Helens' flavour and Sky Sports Rugby League picks a selection of memorable moments from another frantic weekend.
Leeds were so injury stricken, manager Brian McDermott was forced to promote 17-year old prop Tom Holroyd to the match day squad against table-toppers St Helens.
But whatever fear might have been felt in the stands at Headingley, it quickly evaporated as Leeds Rhinos tore into Saints, demonstrating the kind of intensity, accuracy and game management many expected the visitors to serve up.
Their time would come and Saints eventually secured a 23-22 win but it was a blistering see-saw contest that captivated from start to finish.
There were some immensely pleasing efforts on the eye, and none more attractive than Stefan Rathford's finish to a kicking move of consummate skill in Warrington's 32-30 win over Wakefield.
But for sheer tenacity and bloody-mindedness, Ryan Morgan's crawling scrambling effort to bring St Helens storming back into the contest against Leeds was both striking and stirring.
Manager Brian McDermott was in philosophical mood after his charges hit something of a performance max against Saints. Rightly so too, coming off the back of some poor recent form, it was an utterly committed effort few expected from an injury-riven selection.
Huddersfield were giving away free tickets for this fixture against Catalans Dragons. Those present in the Jungle who availed of them must have felt they understood the reason why when Giants trailed by 0-18 after 25 minutes.
But from there, Huddersfield clawed their way back to engineer a winning opportunity and scrum-half Oliver Russell sealed a 26-25 that will surely have won new fans, with a penalty down the close.
With two minutes to go, St Helen's trailed Leeds by a point before Danny Richardson sent Saints fans into ecstasy when smashing a late drop-goal to maintain the leader's winning run.
In the following evening at the KCOM Stadium, a drop-goal provided the platform for Wigan's 14-10 win over Hull FC. Somewhat bizarrely the pitch apparatus turned provider when Wigan reclaimed a drop-goal rebound off the crossbar to score and seal the win.
There are others, but it was an eventful night for Salford centre Kris Welham, who scored two tries to reach 150 for his career but was also sent to the sin bin in the 26-12 victory over Widnes.
Greg Burke scored the decisive try on his debut to sink Widnes, the club he left last week to join Salford on loan.
The former Wigan prop arrived at Salford along with Ed Chamberlain in a swap deal for Weller Hauraki, who joined the Vikings and all three were in action at the AJ Bell Stadium on Thursday night.
But Burke returned to haunt his parent club as he tumbled over the try line with 18 minutes remaining for the game-breaking score.
