CHAMPIONS Leeds fought back from the pit of despair to win an absolute classic play-off.

The Rhinos will now meet St Helens in next week's Grand Final in a repeat of last year's showdown.

But the Old Trafford clash will have to go a long way to match the drama of this Headingley humdinger.

Leeds - reeling from a shock thumping by Saints last week - took the game by the scruff of the neck.

And at times the players were just as much at each throats as tempers simmered and then boiled over in a mass scrap.

Keith Senior was sinbinned for throwing several wild punches, while Mark Calderwood got 10 minutes in the bin for the professional foul that sparked the dust-up.

The yellow card was, though, just a minor footnote in the amazing peformance produced by Wigan winger and former Leeds star Calderwood.

He pulled off five stunning try-saving tackles, including four in an amazing eight-minute spell early in the second half.

It was a display that was worthy of a place in next week's Old Trafford showdown.

But instead Hull-bound Calderwood will still be wondering today how his season, and his Wigan career, came to such a heartbreaking end.

Leeds, in this mood though, would have taken some stopping even by 13 Calderwoods.

They were far more dominant than the scoreline suggested to the delight of coach Brian McClennan.

He said: "I am very very proud of the lads and very excited that we are in the Grand Final. It is an honour to be there.

"We have come through a very tough game where we had to face a lot of adversity. I was really confident that the guys were not going to be denied."

McClennan had a big task lifting his players after the disappointment of last week's play-off embarrassment at Saints.

But he feels his men answered the doubters, saying: "We hit the canvas last week but the sign of character is the person who gets up again and has another crack.

"We kept getting up again tonight, in extreme adversity at times, and kept firing away."

Leeds nudged themselves into a 6-2 half-time lead thanks to the first of Lee Smith's two tries and a Kevin Sinfield penalty.

But a lesser team than Leeds would have wilted as they got repeatedly frustrated in the second half by Wigan and the video referee.

Calderwood almost single-handedly kept them at bay before Jamie Peacock thought he'd grounded - only for video ref Ian Smith to harshly disallow it after almost five minutes of deliberation.

But the Rhinos kept plugging away and finally got their reward and moved a step closer to their fifth Grand Final when Keith Senior touched down.

Sinfield added the conversion and then landed a penalty to make it 14-2 but still Wigan refused to be beaten.

The Warriors, aiming to become the first team to reach a Grand Final from fourth spot, got the nerves jangling with late tries from Harrison Hansen and Iafeta Paleaaesina.

But Smith's second was enough to deny Brian Noble his dream of becoming the first coach to win the Super League title four times.

Noble said: "Mark Calderwood epitomised our challenge with the amount of try-saving tackles he made. It was a strong performance but we could not find enough ball for him at the other end of the field.

"But I am extremely proud of all 17 players, they deserve a lot of credit. It was a tough game, but take nothing away from Leeds."

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