Rugby League Coaching Manuals

Hull warmed up for their Challenge Cup semi-final in seven days' time by ending their derby day blues with a 44-18 win against bitter rivals Hull KR at the KC Stadium.

The Black and Whites had lost the last three meetings between the two but forgot the form book to produce their best performance of the season and earn Richard Agar a first derby win of his coaching career.

They will now travel to Doncaster for their semi-final against Wakefield buoyed by their first success of the season over Justin Morgan's men, who remain highly unlikely to reach the play-offs after their sixth defeat in seven games.

Sam Burgess' first-half sinbinning ultimately counted for little as Bradford overturned an interval deficit to send play-off rivals Wakefield into their Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final on the back of a morale-sapping fourth straight defeat, 24-10 at Odsal.

The 19-year-old Bulls and England forward, who is nursing a shoulder injury which could yet require reconstructive surgery that would rule him out of the World Cup this autumn, became needlessly involved in a melee involving several players in the 32nd minute.

The incident was in keeping with a chaotic but low-quality first half which saw Wakefield establish a 6-0 lead through Damien Blanch's second-minute try and a penalty from Brad Drew.

But the Wildcats surrendered meekly after the break, allowing Bradford to hit back with four tries through Paul Deacon, Terry Newton, Ben Jeffries and Iestyn Harris.

It was the worst possible way for John Kear's men to prepare for next Sunday's Challenge Cup semi-final against Hull at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Michael Shenton, Luke Dorn and Richard Owen each helped themselves to three tries as bottom club Castleford produced a ruthless display to crush a patched-up Harlequins side 66-12 at the Stoop.

Quins, bereft of a host of regulars through injury and suspension, had no answer to Castleford's attacking performance as the visitors belied their lowly position to cross for 13 tries.

Leeds inflicted third-place Catalans' first home defeat since March 8 and kept the pressure on St Helens at the top of the table with a 37-24 victory in France.

Behind at the break, the Rhinos produced a tremendous fightback thanks to the outstanding Ali Lauitiiti that ended the French side's seven-match unbeaten run.

Scott Donald's magnificent try capped the display as the Rhinos went back level with Saints.

Leeds opened the scoring thanks to Lee Smith, with Kevin Sinfield scoring the conversion.

Soon the Dragons began to show why they have been on their unbeaten run - Bosc landing a superb touchline conversion to level in the seventh minute.

Five minutes later, Hall was again exposed when McGuire's towering bomb eluded him and Olivier Elima collected to scamper over for another Bosc-converted try.

Dragons extended their lead in the 25th minute.

Sebastien Raguin powered over out wide from Bosc's pass, the same man again landing a magnificent touchline conversion.

Leeds cut the gap to 18-10 before the break, Raguin misjudging Danny McGuire's kick to the wing and Hall pouncing to score.

Leeds made the perfect start to the second half in front of a record Dragons attendance of 9,880 as Burrow shot through a gap to score. Kevin Sinfield converted.

Elima then powered through to the posts for his second try, Bosc making it 24-16.

But Elima turned to villain in the 53rd minute when he lost the ball on halfway and from the scrum, Burrow found space to send McGuire over.

The Rhinos took the lead for the first time when Sinfield's inside ball freed Lauitiiti to score. Sinfield converted to make it 24-26.

With six minutes left, an innocuous kick on the last tackle from Julien Touxagas found Donald in space and he scampered 70 metres - evading three tacklers - for the try of the game.

Sinfield's third miss kept the match alive but his drop goal three minutes later sealed it and in the closing minute Hall atoned for his early errors with his second touchdown.

A first-ever hat-trick of tries by Huddersfield full-back Leroy Cudjoe was all in vain as Warrington came from 18-6 down to beat the Giants 19-18.

Stand-off Lee Briers secured the Wolves' sixth win in seven matches under new coach James Lowes with a snap drop goal seven minutes from the end, with Huddersfield captain Chris Thorman missing a chance to snatch a point.

The victory strengthens Warrington's play-off prospects while Huddersfield remain in 11th place after losing their first home game since Easter.

On Friday night, form team St Helens cruised to a 15th straight win and a crushing hat-trick of derby triumphs with a 46-12 victory against 12-man Wigan at the JJB Stadium.

The Warriors were forced to play all but the first five minutes a man short after hooker Michael McIlorum was sent off by referee Ashley Klein for a high tackle on Great Britain winger Ade Gardner and Saints made them pay with an eight-try romp.

Scrum-half Sean Long scored one of the tries and kicked six goals from seven attempts on his 300th appearance for free-scoring Saints, who have piled up 214 points in their last four matches and run in 149 in three games against Wigan this year.

Poor McIlorum was forced to watch the latest embarrassment from the stand after being shown the fastest red card of the season.

It had been an ignominious opening by the youngster, whose knock-on in the first set of tackles had gifted Saints possession from which they scored the game's first try.  Sporting Life