England winger Ryan Hall grabbed a brace of tries as defending engage Super League champions Leeds Rhinos put one hand on the League Leaders’ Shield held for the last four years by St Helens.

Victory in a gripping Grand Final re-match that lived up to all expectations in front of a 19,997 Headingley crowd took the Rhinos two points clear of their arch rivals with one round of the regular season left to play.

It means Leeds need only avoid a heavy defeat in their last match at lowly Salford Reds next Friday to ensure they go into the play-offs in pole position as they seek to wrap up a hat-trick of Super League titles.

The champions’ victory owed much to the finishing of Hall, who has enjoyed a tremendous season and took his try tally in all matches to 30 by touching down in each half.

The early exchanges were typically fierce and Leeds had forward Jamie Jones-Buchanan placed on report for a crunching tackle on Saints front rower James Graham while centre Keith Senior was sin-binned two minutes from the end for punching his former England team-mate Jon Wilkin.

St Helens, who played Wilkin despite earlier ruling him out with a knee injury, took the lead despite being reduced to 12 men through the sin-binning of Leon Pryce for the most blatant professional foul imaginable.

A break by Danny McGuire left the Saints defence in tatters and, although Francis Meli managed to haul him down short of the line, Leeds seemed certain to score from the play-the-ball through Scott Donald until Pryce came from an offside position to make the tackle.

The Rhinos tried to make their man advantage count and worked Donald over at the corner only for slow-motion replays to show he had a foot in touch.

St Helens made the most of the let-off and opened the scoring against the run of play when Graham slipped the ball out of the tackle for onrushing second rower Lee Gilmour to power over for the game’s opening try.

Kyle Eastmond added the conversion to put the visitors 6-0 up and, despite an overwhelming share of possession, it took Leeds until the 25th minute to draw level.

The Saints defence was superb but Rhinos second rower Carl Ablett eventually found a chink after livewire scrum-half Rob Burrow had been held just short of the line.

And Leeds’ pressure told again just before half-time when veteran centre Senior got Hall over at the corner and Kevin Sinfield’s second goal opened up a six-point lead.

Saints struck back seven minutes into the second half when a diagnal run from Eastmond dragged the Leeds defence out of position and a gap opened up for loose forward Chris Flannery to score their second try.

Eastmond was wide with the conversion but he was a handful for the Rhinos defence with his electrifying footwork.

Leeds went close at the other end and looked particularly dangerous through the probing runs of McGuire.

Substitute prop Ryan Bailey was held up on his back over the line but there was no stopping Hall once he was given a one-on-one against Ade Gardner and he duly crossed for his second try on the hour.

Sinfield was wide with the conversion but added a penalty six minutes from the end to give his side the cushion of a two-score lead.