Wheelchair Super League Grand Final: Halifax Panthers beat Leeds Rhinos to win title
- Published
Rob Hawkins' fourth try restored Halifax's lead at the National Basketball Performance Centre after Leeds levelled at 42-42
Halifax Panthers withstood a second-half fightback by Leeds Rhinos to win the Wheelchair Super League Grand Final in Manchester.
The Panthers dominated the first half against the Challenge Cup holders and led 36-16 at half-time.
Nathan Collins scored a second-half hat-trick to take his tally to five as Leeds levelled at 42-42.
But Rob Hawkins scored his fourth and fifth tries of the game to put Halifax back ahead as they ended 52-48 winners.
Halifax last won the title in 2019 but then lost out in the semi-finals last season, with Leeds beating Leyland Warriors 52-36 in the final.
The Panthers took an early lead at the National Basketball Performance Centre when England international Hawkins opened the scoring in the first three minutes.
Leeds responded with tries from England international James Simpson and Collins, but it was the Panthers who took control of the first half, with Hawkins adding two more tries and France international Jeremy Bourson scoring another.
A try on the hooter from Collins saw the Rhinos close the gap to 20 points at half-time.
The Rhinos started the second half strongly and bossed the ball throughout the opening 20 minutes.
Wales international Jodie Boyd-Ward scored before Collins added three more tries - taking his tally to five for the match - plus a penalty following a nasty challenge from Bourson to level the game at 42-42 with eight minutes to go.
Two more tries from Hawkins gave the Panthers breathing space, and although the Rhinos pulled one back in the final minute through Josh Butler, Halifax held on to claim their fifth title.
Man of the match Rob Hawkins:
"It's been too long since we last won it - it's a massive achievement. We know we are going to have to keep training as hard as we did to make sure that we are to become champions again.
"I can't credit the team enough, they played so well today. They all deserve a medal. I love that we won it, but it was close."
Halifax coach Wayne Boardman:
"They had the momentum, then we had the momentum, but we had a gameplan to cut out the unforced errors.
"We can't get any better start than we had. We had some ups and downs throughout the game. I knew we had to keep the ball to stop the Rhinos from scoring. We had to remain calm and composed to win this game.
"It was a great game to play in and I'm sure it was a good game to watch, too."
Leeds coach James Simpson:
"It was tough out there. We had a plan to win the game and we stuck to it, but a real shame to come up four points short.
"We gave ourselves too much to do out there. It came down to things like one missed tackle and we were chasing the game.
"I said at half-time as soon as you stop giving away eight-metre restarts the game will change, and I said stop going for deep kicks and go for shorts ones. We did that and the game shifted.
"All the way through until the last minute I thought we could do it. It's been a tough year for the players. Winning two out of three trophies can't be bad. You can't win everything. We had a challenge today, we pushed ourselves to breaking point and just came up short."
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