Leeds won an entertaining Boxing Day challenge that saw both sides field several new faces and say goodbye to Willie Poching, who retired after a career that included both Rhinos and Wildcats.

Leeds had a scare when new signing Kylie Leuluai limped off after 20 minutes with an ankle injury but he is expected to recover in time for the new season.

Wakefield started brightly, making most of the early inroads, but it was Leeds who opened the scoring with their first attack.

Kevin Sinfield's scything run created the position and Leeds moved the ball quickly along the line to put Scott Donald over in the corner.

Wildcats' enterprise was rewarded 10 minutes later when some slick handling created an opening for Jason Demetriou to arc his way to the line.

Jordan Tansey put Leeds back in front in the 21st minute and eight minutes into the second half, Matt Diskin rounded off a long spell of Leeds possession with a touchdown, Kevin Sinfield landing his second successful kick to put them 16-4 in front.

But Wakefield still looked dangerous, especially when Richard Moore came off the bench. Paul March had a try ruled out for offside but with 10 minutes to go the Wildcats came back into the game with two tries in as many minutes.

Kevin Henderson was put over by a good offload from Moore and a minute later with virtually his first touch of the match, sub Luke George outsprinted the opposition from deep in his own half to score.

Leeds had the last word, teenager Ryan

Hall scoring on his debut and the biggest cheer of the day was for Poching's long-range conversion.