Super League: Widnes Vikings 56-12 Leeds Rhinos

Corey Thompson joined Widnes from Canterbury Bulldogs this season

Defending Super League champions Leeds Rhinos suffered a 10-try demolition at Widnes and face an injury crisis before next week's World Club Challenge clash against North Queensland Cowboys.

Leeds lost Tom Briscoe, Carl Ablett and Ashton Golding with leg injuries as Widnes led 28-6 at the break.

Corey Thompson scored one of five first-half ties and completed his hat-trick after the break.

Victory sees Widnes move top of the Super League table.

Leeds have lost their first two league matches as they prepare to host Australian National Rugby League's North Queensland in the world's premier club event at Headingley next week.

Leeds' opening day loss to Warrington last week saw Danny McGuire go off hurt and subsequently ruled out for up to two months with a knee injury.

Widnes, who secured their Super League status via the Qualifiers last season, made a tremendous start - Kevin Brown orchestrating the opening try with their first foray forward before Charly Runciman dished the ball out superbly to send Stefan Marsh over in the corner.

While Marsh failed to control the ball with a second try begging soon after, Brown put Setaimata Sa through to for his third try in two games before Thompson darted over to put Widnes 16-0 up inside 14 minutes.

More crafty play from Brown sent Lloyd White over to finish a move that he began and Runciman grabbed Vikings' fifth try before Kallum Watkins responded for Leeds with the final play of the half.

Watkins' try and Rob Burrow's late touchdown were the only blemishes on a fierce Widnes defensive display against a Leeds outfit that dominated Super League last season with the games' most prolific attack.

Thompson completed his treble with tries either side of Joe Mellor's effort to put the result beyond Leeds' reach, with Connor Farrell and Marsh then running in Widnes' ninth and 10th scores to complete the stunning upset.

Widnes Viking coach Denis Betts:

"It's hard not to be so pleased and happy with the performance.

"We're two games in so we don't want to get carried away, but we came into the game with real confidence of winning and to restrict Leeds to 12 points is a real bonus.

"We know we can score tries but we defended with great resilience. We were so composed.

"I thought Lloyd White was the best player on the field by a long way. He was absolutely fantastic and there were lots of performances to support him."

Leeds Rhinos boss Brian McDermott:

"The most disappointing things are how we played and the injuries. We're not sure of extent of the injuries but all three are very doubtful next week.

"It was so fast and so frantic, they scored their tries so fast , that I will need to look at it again before giving an assessment of it. But we weren't great."

Widnes: Hanbury; Thompson, Bridge, Runciman, Marsh; Mellor, Brown; O'Carroll, White, Dudson, Sa, Farrell, Houston.

Replacements: Dean, Manuokafoa, Cahill, Heremaia.

Leeds: Hardaker; Briscoe, Watkins, Moon, Hall;, Lilley, Sutcliffe; Galloway, Burrow, Cuthbertson, Ablett, Ferres, Delaney.

Replacements: Singleton, Garbutt, Keinhorst, Golding.

Attendance: 6,596

Referee: George Stokes (RFL)