The Warriors, who two weeks ago wrapped up the minor premiership, will face the Cronulla Sharks in a do or die semi-final that many thought would attract a sparse crowd.After fears the match attendance for tomorrow’s second semi-final might be an all-time low, 10,000 tickets were bought up by the club sponsors to give away this week – all one had to do to get a free ticket was to turn up at agencies throughout Sydney with a Kiwi passport.The result: 10,000 tickets were snapped up within two hours with the promise from club owner Eric Watson of another 10,000. And the Warriors will be attempting to give them something to cheer about against the impressive Sharks.Some are arguing that a week’s rest will go against the Warriors, that their big pack of forwards will not be battle hardened. But the former Bradford Bulls and current Canberra Raiders coach Matt Elliott believes the rest has given them the chance to get over any niggling injuries and be fully prepared.”The only thing that could go against them is the weather,” says Elliott, whose Raiders crashed out of this season’s finals to the Warriors 36-20 in Auckland. “When we played them the conditions were quite cool but if the temperature is up in the mid-20s then it could sap their energy.”Elliott finds it hard to pick a winner, believing the Warriors’ defensive tactics will suit the Sharks’ flat attack. “Both sides will be looking for weaknesses in each other’s defence and in Stacey Jones the Warriors have probably the best short kicking expert in the game.

But Brett Kimmorley’s long kicking for the Sharks is also a killer.”What the Warriors do have is a very mobile pack of forwards with a lot of skill and that is where the Sharks will have to be on their guard.”Elliott says he can’t pick a winner from either game, with Brisbane Broncos travelling south to meet form team Sydney Roosters on tonight. “You look at all four sides and you try to pick weaknesses to exploit but to get this far they can’t have too many.”. Clinical finishing, typified by Keith Senior’s hat-trick, saw Leeds safely through into the next round of the Super League play-offs, although this was a match in which Hull also had and squandered a wealth of opportunities. Sinfield was also instrumental in Leeds’ second try after 23 minutes, delaying his pass cleverly to put Francis Cummins through a gap.Leeds were handing out a lesson in taking chances, and they did so again nine minutes before half-time when Steve Prescott lost Ryan Sheridan’s high kick and Ben Walker pounced to score, with Sinfield’s penalty making it a 14-point lead at the break.The evening had started auspiciously for Hull, with captain Jason Smith recovering from a dislocated elbow to make the starting line-up in what coach Shaun McRae called “a minor miracle”.Hull had their chances again at the start of the second half with Kohe-Love and Raynor both being denied tries on video evidence. After Sean Ryan had been sin-binned for holding down, Leeds struck again, Senior scoring his second try.Two minutes later, Mark Calderwood comfortably won the race for Sinfield’s kick to the corner, and Leeds were well clear.Hull at last managed to score through Lee Jackson, but Leeds responded immediately through Senior and Calderwood.Jackson scored a bizarre second from a quickly taken tap-penalty, and Scott Logan got over for Hull’s third try in injury time. They were left reflecting on earlier chances spurned that effectively ended any chance of progress.Leeds: Cummins; Calderwood, C Walker, Senior, Mathers; B Walker, Sheridan; Ward, Diskin, McDermott, Hay, Adamson, Sinfield. Substitutes used: McGuire, Poching, Burrow, McDonald.Hull: Horne; Raynor, Kohe-Love, Mackay, Prescott; Cooke, T Smith; Greenhill, Jackson, Logan, Maher, Ryan, J Smith.

Substitutes used: Poucher, Parker, Fletcher, King.Referee: R Smith (Castleford).. It has been removals week in the Howley household, with added trauma sprinkled over the operation like extra pepperoni on a takeaway pizza. Rob Howley is a wonderful scrum-half, up there alongside George Gregan and Joost van der Westhuizen as the finest of his generation, but he is fairly useless at handling changes of scenery. Having agonised for ever and a day before leaving the Bridgend club for Cardiff in 1996, a decision that did not even demand a change of address, he was always likely to regard a move to London with the kind of trepidation Wilfred Thesiger reserved for his lengthier explorations of Arabia’s Empty Quarter.

My main reason, maybe the only real reason, for retiring from international rugby was to spend more time with my wife and daughters, so having them with me here is what it’s about. Meanwhile, I’m decorating like crazy and fighting a small war with the gas people.” Happy days.Actually, Howley is happiness personified. He has bought a place in Windsor – not the castle, although some of the financial temptations dangled before him in the none-too-distant past might have put him in the market for a wing or two – and the location leaves him handily placed for both squad sessions in Acton and Premiership matches in High Wycombe. He is equally well positioned to help Wasps, heavyweight hitters who floated like bees and stung like butterflies last season, to rediscover some rugby ringcraft. With a world-class recruit in their corner, the Londoners look ready to punch their weight again.Certainly, Warren Gatland is quietly confident of a top four finish and a decent cup run or two. It was the coach who finally convinced Howley that it was high time he crossed the Severn Bridge for a period of years rather than hours: “I had always rated Wasps, always got along well with people like Lawrence Dallaglio and Kenny Logan,” the player said, “and one 15-minute phone chat with Warren clinched it for me.”The fruits of that brief conversation are already evident, four matches into the campaign.