Warrington's renaissance under Jimmy Lowes continued on Saturday night as a second-half masterclass destroyed engage Super League champions Leeds at a rapturous Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The Wolves trailed 6-4 after a ferociously-contested opening period which saw Kylie Leuluai and Matt King trade touchdowns and Rhinos forward Ali Lauitiiti placed on report for elbowing Ben Westwood in the face.

But they proved irresistible after the restart as hooker Jon Clarke touched down and full-back Chris Hicks grabbed a quickfire double by the hour mark, before Lee Mitchell added a fifth with 12 minutes remaining.

The scores were no more than Warrington deserved, such was their stunning second-half superiority over a Rhinos outfit dogged by injury and wobbling alarmingly as the run-in approaches.

Dumped out of Carnegie Challenge Cup by St Helens last weekend, this latest setback raises serious questions marks over Leeds' ability to defend their Super League crown.

Perhaps Warrington can have a say in championship matters after so many seasons of underachievement.

This was their seventh win in eight games since Lowes was placed in charge and the significance of it was not lost on their loyal supporters.

Former Leeds, Bradford and Great Britain hooker Lowes was this week awarded a contract until the end of 2009 after presiding over a mightily impressive turnaround in fortunes since long-serving coach Paul Cullen left the club in May.

Lowes saw his men begin the brighter but squander the first real opportunity to get points on the board in the 11th minute when Hicks skewed a relatively straighforward penalty wide of the posts.

It was indicative of the early exchanges as a whole as both sides were guilty of undercooked and misplaced passes from the majority of their attacks.

The Wolves went close again in the 13th minute when King got his fingertips to a high kick but narrowly failed to ground the ball.

Leeds gradually established a foothold on proceedings and, after Lauitiiti was placed on report for leading with the elbow as he sought to fend off Westwood, they led through Leuluai's close-range score which Sinfield converted.

However, Warrington rallied and deserved their try on the stroke of half-time as young replacement Mitchell darted through a gap to embark on a fine run.

He showed intelligence to find Hicks to his left and King was on hand to finish the move in the left-hand corner.

Hicks could not convert from a difficult angle but Warrington continued in the same vein after the break and were rewarded for their endeavour in spades.

They led for the first time in the 45th minute when skipper Adrian Morley drove at the heart of his former club with a rare burst of pace and some clever footwork which sent Clarke scuttling under the posts.

Six minutes later they had their third try as Hicks finished off a bewildering array of inter-passing to cross in the left corner as Leeds gradually fell apart.

A fourth soon followed shortly before the hour mark as Hicks found the space to cross again after a fine break from Kevin Penny and neat handling from Martin Gleeson.

Clearly not content with a four-try haul, Warrington cut Leeds to shreds with 12 minutes remaining when Mitchell exploited a hideous gap in the visiting rearguard to go it alone for a fine individual score in the left corner.

Hicks could only convert one of his side's five tries and although Leuluai crossed late on for the Rhinos - and Kevin Sinfield converted - the Yorkshiremen had long since surrendered the points.