Wigan Warriors 17–4 Leeds Rhinos — Qualifying Semi-Final, 1998 Super League Finals Series
11 Oct 1998 · Central Park, Wigan · Attendance: 12,941
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Qualifying Semi-Final, 1998 Super League finals series: Wigan Warriors 17–4 Leeds Rhinos, at Central Park, Wigan on 11 Oct 1998.
Sourcing caveat: Individual try minutes were not confirmed across sources and are omitted rather than guessed at. Lineups sourced this round from Rugby League Project's per-match page (rugbyleagueproject.org/matches/2611). Both lineups fetched cleanly on the first pass with real, varied squad numbers (Wigan's Terry O'Connor at 16, Tony Mestrov at 10; Leeds' Terry Newton at 21, Darren Fleary at 25) and complete 4-player benches — no position-order renumbering artifact encountered. Leeds' lineup shows ordinary week-to-week rotation from this round's Qualifying Final entry for the club (Richie Blackmore starting at Centre with Francis Cummins moving to Wing and Leroy Rivett dropping to the bench), consistent and explicable rather than any kind of data-quality concern. Coaches: John Monie (Wigan Warriors, confirmed via Wikipedia's 1998 Wigan Warriors season article, which states the club was "Coached by John Monie" for the full Super League III campaign including the Grand Final — NOT Andy Goodway, who is confirmed by round 43's 1999-season sourcing as Wigan's coach for 1999, only taking over after this 1998 season had ended) and Graham Murray (Leeds Rhinos, reused from this round's already-established 1998 tenure).
Scorers
| Wigan Warriors | Tries: Bell; Gilmour; Paul Goals: Farrell (2 conversions) Drop goals: Farrell |
| Leeds Rhinos | Tries: Cummins |
Team sheets
| Wigan Warriors | Leeds Rhinos | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kris Radlinski | Fullback | Iestyn Harris | 1 |
| 2 | Jason Robinson | Wing | Paul Sterling | 2 |
| 4 | Gary Connolly | Centre | Richie Blackmore | 3 |
| 3 | Danny Moore | Centre | Brad Godden | 4 |
| 5 | Mark Bell | Wing | Francis Cummins | 5 |
| 6 | Henry Paul | Five-Eighth | Daryl Powell | 13 |
| 7 | Tony Smith | Halfback | Ryan Sheridan | 7 |
| 16 | Terry O'Connor | Prop | Martin Masella | 8 |
| 9 | Robbie McCormack | Hooker | Terry Newton | 21 |
| 10 | Tony Mestrov | Prop | Darren Fleary | 25 |
| 17 | Stephen Holgate | Second Row | Adrian Morley | 11 |
| 20 | Lee Gilmour | Second Row | Anthony Farrell | 17 |
| 13 | Andy Farrell | Lock | Marc Glanville | 12 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 25 | Paul Johnson | Marcus St Hilaire | 24 | |
| 12 | Simon Haughton | Leroy Rivett | 22 | |
| 15 | Jon Clarke | Andy Hay | 27 | |
| 8 | Neil Cowie | Jamie Mathiou | 20 | |
| John Monie | Coach | Graham Murray | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Stuart Cummings |
Match report
Wigan Warriors, this season's top seed, beat Leeds Rhinos 17-4 at Central Park on 11 October 1998 in a Super League Qualifying Semi-Final. The result sent Wigan directly through to the Grand Final and dropped Leeds into the Preliminary Final.