AP – Australian Joel Moon haunted former employers Salford on Friday night as Leeds came through their final Super League game before the World Club Challenge against Melbourne with a 42-14 thrashing.
Former Brisbane Broncos and Warriors centre Moon was snapped up by Leeds following an impressive season with the Reds last year, when he scored 11 tries in 19 games, and touched down twice in a classy display.
He was not always joined in excellence by his teammates as Salford occasionally made life difficult for Brian McDermott’s reigning champions, but the Rhinos had enough about them to pull clear when they needed to.
Whether NRL premiers the Storm will be scared by what was on show ahead of next Friday’s meeting remains to be seen, although before thinking about them, McDermott will have to rake over his squad and check for injuries.
Fullback Zak Hardaker – concussed in last week’s defeat at Castleford – went off at half-time with suggestions circulating he was being given a cautionary breather, and he will head McDermott’s checklist, along with Ryan Bailey, Brett Delaney and Jamie Peacock, who sat out the match.
Meanwhile, former Canberra winger Joel Monaghan scored two tries as unbeaten Warrington ended Catalan Dragons’ 100 per cent start to the season with an ugly 24-16 win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
The Australian’s double and Richie Myler’s try was enough as the Wolves claimed a crucial early lead in a scrappy, ill-disciplined and controversial contest.
Damien Blanch began a fightback with two tries but the game got beyond the Dragons, who twice saw Brent Webb sin-binned, when Rhys Evans touched down.
Zeb Taia reduced the arrears late on but the Wolves, who were unexpectedly without playmaker Lee Briers and played most of the game without early injury victim Adrian Morley, had done enough.
In the other match, Australian five-eighth Daniel Holdsworth put Hull into a winning position but failed to deliver the killer punch to leave the scores tied at 22-22 at Langtree Park.
The Black and Whites fought back from 22-12 down to draw level with the aid of Richard Whiting’s 72nd-minute try and ought to have taken both points after dominating the final quarter.
But Holdsworth, who had helped create all four of his side’s tries and kicked three superb conversions, missed a kick to win it and was also wide with two long-range drop-goal attempts in a frantic finish.