Calderwood at head of opening charge by Rhinos

Leeds 32 Widnes 1

Mark Calderwood started his Super League season with a hat-trick of tries as Widnes's big ex-Leeds contingent made an unproductive return to Headingley yesterday. The Rhinos winger was the main beneficiary as Leeds exploited their visitors' defensive frailties, particularly their inability to deal with kicks to either flank.

Widnes beat Leeds twice last season, but were far too error prone to have any chance of continuing that sequence.

The weaknesses started to show as early as the seventh minute when Andrew Dunemann's bomb got away from Chris Percival and Chris McKenna opened the scoring. The second was the product of excellent handling, starting with the outstanding Wayne McDonald and ending with Calderwood touching down.

McDonald was out of favour and apparently out of Headingley last season, but the 6ft 7in forward stood tall yesterday. "We were disappointed in him last season, but he responded in the right way,'' said his coach Daryl Powell, who was also pleased with the contribution of all his newcomers, especially Gary Connolly at full-back.

It still took Leeds some time to shake off Widnes, after the Vikings replied through Jason Demetriou, scoring from Dean Lawford's superb pass, and two goals from Adam Hughes.

But Hughes was at fault when Leeds again scored from a kick, Kevin Sinfield's bomb getting away from him for Calderwood to claim his second.

Another Sinfield kick caused trouble two minutes later, Francis Cummins palming it down for Keith Senior who sent it straight back to him for another Leeds try.

Widnes would have been out of it already if David Furner had managed more than one goal; instead, they came back at Leeds again with Ryan Sheridan, shown the door at Headingley in the winter, sending Danny Frame over.

Widnes were now in a position to continue being a nuisance, but failed to sustain their effort after the break. Three tries in 11 minutes put paid to them. Matt Diskin and Dunemann handled smoothly to send Senior in, before a long charge from McDonald provided Dunemann with a well deserved try of his own.

Finally, Calderwood completed his hat-trick with a cheeky chip over Hughes that bounced perfectly back into his hands.

"Last season, that would have ended up in Row Z,'' said Powell, no doubt hoping that it will be some sort of portent for this year's campaign. It was, he said: "A really good team effort.''

Widnes after their heroics last season, were a disappointment, obviously missing the direction they could expect from a specialist stand-off. "We were in business at half-time and the biggest disappointment to me was not showing the desire to go on from there and get something out of the game,'' said their coach Neil Kelly.

Leeds: Connolly; Calderwood, McKenna, Senior, Cummins; Dunemann, Burrow; McDonald, Diskin, Bailey, Furner, Adamson, Sinfield. Substitutes used: McGuire, Ward, McDermott, Walker.

Widnes: Spruce; Demetriou, Hughes, Bird, Percival; Lawford, Sheridan; Relf, Millard, O'Neill, McCurrie, Hay, Frame. Substitutes used: Atcheson, Mills, Farrell, Cantillon.

Referee: C Morris (Huddersfield).