Super League: Micah Sivo scores twice as Leeds Rhinos return to the top of the table as they battle it out at Toulouse | Rugby League News

Micah Civo took his season tally to 22 tries as Leeds battled back in Toulouse to go top of the Betfred Super League with a 48-24 win away to France.

The Rhinos, who led 30-0 at one stage, were ahead inside three minutes when stand-off Brodie Croft made the most of the Toulouse defense’s failure to deal with Jake Connor’s kick and added the conversion at scrum-half.

Winger Sivo was walked in by the quick hand of Ash Handley in the 17th minute, and center Harry Newman powered his way through five minutes later to make it 18-0 to Connor.

Fergie McCormack made no mistake after full-back Cesare Roose spilled another high ball from Connor, who duly obliged with the extra, and Luke Polcelli repeated the Newman dose seven minutes before the break after another aerial attack with Connor on target.

However, the hosts reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Rouge’s line break allowed Tomas Lacans to head over and Jake Shorrocks’ kick made it 30-6 at the break.

The French side clawed their way to within 18 points when Polcelli collected Benjamin Leguerre’s kick-through seconds after the restart and Shorrocks made it two to two from the touchline.

Lacans went on in the 48th minute to boost Toulouse’s hopes of an unlikely comeback, and they were back in it just six minutes later when Leguerre received Polcelli’s pass and headed into the corner after knocking down McCormack, putting the Sharks on target again.

Civo settled Leeds’ nerves before Chris Hankinson and substitute Cameron Smith made sure with their side’s seventh and eighth tries respectively, Connor maintaining his perfect record with the boot to finish with 16 points.

Leeds head coach Brad Arthur said what he was thinking after Olympique came back to within six points. Sky Sports: “I was excited about the challenge.

“They were playing with energy, everything was sticking and the ball was bouncing their way, so I was really excited to see, ‘Raito, where are we? How can we get back on top of this game? Can we show some composure or can we panic?’.

“Full credit to the boys, they showed resilience under Jake (Connor) and we didn’t panic, and it shows another evolution in our game and a bit of growth in our game.”

Toulouse head coach Sylvain Howles said: “Obviously when you play Leeds Rhinos and it’s 30 points, the gap, it’s always difficult to come back.

“It was the same story when we were playing those top-six teams. I watch the Wigan games, the Hull KR games – we always fall down and try to come back, and we do. We manage, we are brave, we fight hard, we show a lot of resilience, but we have to make sure we don’t fall that far.”

Davies double haul helps KR beat York

A double from Tom Davies saw Hull KR come from behind to beat York 38-6 at Sewell Group Craven Park.

The winger launched another effort to recover from a 6-0 deficit on a night when Rovers plundered the Knights for seven tries.

York had a dream start when winger John Bennison pounced on Mikey Lewis’ short drop-out and raced home before Liam Harris kicked the conversion.

However, the hosts hit back after just 10 minutes when Davies headed over in the corner from Lewis’ pass, Rhys Martin leveling the game at 6-6.

Davies thought he had doubled his tally five minutes later after drawing his man before finding the Tyrone May winger, but his effort was ruled out for obstruction after a review, although Lewis put the Robins ahead for the first time when he crossed on 23 minutes.

Joe Burgess and Martin extended the lead within four minutes and powerhouse prop Tevita Pangai Jr began to make his presence felt off the bench, with James Batchelor scoring a fourth try two minutes before the break, although it was center Peta Hiku’s step and offload that put the second row through.

Davies scored his second courtesy of an eye-catching airborne finish to make it 26-6 within three minutes of the restart, but in an increasingly error-prone performance, it took Rovers until the hour mark to add to their tally when May slipped the ball to Jack Broadbent and Martin sent in a successful fourth kick.

Martin took his personal tally to 14 points when he took Lewis’ pass and walked before adding the kick to complete the scoring.

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters told Sky Sports: “I thought we defended well. In the second half, we made it really difficult for ourselves. We couldn’t quite get out of our edge from the errors.

“But I liked the resilience we showed in the second half. There was a bit of good, but a lot to fix.”

York head coach Mark Applegarth said: “No one likes to lose, but you have to go through those kinds of times to appreciate the good ones.

“Like I’ve said all along, as long as individuals are learning lessons and we’re getting better as a team in the long term, we’ll stomach some short-term pain.”

Wigan eliminate Wakefield in dominant win

Noah Hodgkinson ran in four tries as Wigan delivered a crushing wake-up call to Wakefield’s Betfred Super League dreams with a clinical 48-10 win at the DIY Kitchens Stadium.

The hosts have increasingly threatened to gatecrash the top table of the game and went into the game full of confidence after last week’s stirring win over reigning champions Hull KR.

But Wakefield were simply blown away by Matt Peat’s men whose nine tries were bolstered by 12 points from the boot of Adam Keighran in what proved another strong statement of intent from the mighty cherry-and-whites.

On this form, visitors will come to a bit of a halt at the business end of the campaign, matching Hodkinson’s contributions with the Junior Ensemble’s unstoppable energy and Joy Field’s continued probing forays.

From the moment Keighran’s acrobatic set-up sent captain Liam Farrell for his 150th Wigan try with just six minutes on the clock, there was a sense that the visitors were set to deliver another top-drawer performance.

That proved to be the case, despite Matty Stourton crashing out to help Wakefield briefly level. Hodgkinson could afford to waste a golden chance before grabbing his opener on the half-hour mark after strong work from Nesemba.

Two minutes later Harry Smith’s high kick wreaked havoc on the Wakefield defense and Oliver Partington took advantage of a favorable bounce.

And five minutes before half-time Hodgkinson helped himself to his second goal after again having his chance wasted by Nosember.

Wakefield briefly threatened to shake things up early in the second half through the powerful Caius Fatili, but the visitors stormed back and extended their lead when Hodkinson ran onto Jack Farrimond’s superb cross-field kick to complete his hat-trick.

Pitt decided it was time to bring in Bevan French for his second cameo appearance since undergoing hamstring surgery earlier this year.

The Frenchman’s first task was to ease his team into the Wakefield 20 where Joy Field’s short pass was duly converted by Jake Wardle for his side’s sixth try as the hosts threatened to break away.

Hodkinson walked for his fourth with startling ease, and Jack Eckersley quickly followed that up, threatening to cause embarrassment for Wakefield.

A 65th-minute try from Tom Johnstone reduced the deficit and temporarily stopped the rot, but perhaps it was Farrell who had the final say as he pounced on another neat pass from the Frenchman for the 151st time of his home-town career.

2026 Super League – Key dates and what to look out for

• Magic Weekend: July 4-5 July
• Rival Round Reverse: July 23-July 26
• Playoff Elimination: September 19-September 20
• Play-off semi-finals: September 26-September 27
• Grand Final: 3 October, Old Trafford

Sky Sports Every game in the Super League will again be shown live this season – with two matches from each round exclusively live, the remaining five matches will be shown every week. Sky Sports+