By leedsrhinos.biz
July 7 2007

Despite an awful performance against the Bulls just one week ago, the Rhinos finally pulled their finger out and out-enthused the World Club Champions after their annihilation of the Huddersfield Giants one week earlier. We bring you a full match report on our best performance of the season.

Ryan Hall was in replacement of winger Lee Smith, with this only being his third start for the Rhinos. Keith Senior was playing at right centre to add a bit more strength to the wing.

 

We were on the scoreboard first as Kevin Sinfield kicked an early penalty after the ref called the Saints defence offside although many travelling supporters would of hoped for four points after promising attack.

 

On fourteen minutes as a Saints kick was charged down and collected by skipper Kevin Sinfield who passed inside to number three, Clinton Toopi. After reaching the 45 metre mark, Gidley did enough to trip him up by clipping his back ankle.

 

We should still have crossed the line as Burrow scampered out wide against a panicking defence, but his attempted pass to Hall was poor and the chance went begging into touch.

 

On seventeen minutes, Brent Webb managed to tackle Talau just before the white-wash and it was ruled a knock on by Silverwood’s video referee.

 

With just fifteen minutes remaining, all the pressure built up from the Saints attack eventually resulted in a try for James Roby. He ran through Keith Senior and Gareth Ellis from dummy half to reach the white line on his 100^th appearance for the club. Tyrer added the extras and the score was now 6-2 to the home side.

 

On thirty three minutes Leeds got head and feed in the scrum after a Saints knock on. Captain Kevin Sinfield took it from the scrum and passed the ball right to Danny McGuire who came in on an angle, swerved, wrong footed the defenders and score right beneath the posts. We were once again two points ahead of the entertainers as Sinny slotted the ball between the posts. It looked like the lads were going in at half time in the lead…

 

…until with ninety seconds to go a clear knock on was ignoured by the ref which lead to six more tackles. The move that followed was typical Saints as the ball flowed down the field ended with a try for Tyrer on the wing. Although he failed to convert his own try, the Saints were ahead at half time.

 

The question after half time was who would score next. That could prove to be the crucial try.

 

The answer came after seven minutes when Rob Burrow found a gap to step through the St Helens defence, making over ten metres to score by the post. Sinfield converted and we were now four points ahead.

 

For the next thirty minutes, it became as what Tony Smith said was ‘a war of attrition’ with both teams completing the majority of their sets but with the defences always coming out on top.

 

It would take some brilliance to break the stalemate and it came from Kevin Sinfield with a marvellous cross field forty twenty kick. The resulting scrum started the Rhinos attack which, four tackles later resulted in a pass out wide to Hall who scored on the wing. Sinfield missed the goal attempt but we were now two tries ahead, but it wasn’t an impossible task for the World Champions.

 

St Helens started to take risks in an attempt to score but it wasn’t worth it when a pass from Fozzard was intercepted by Jordan Tansey who ran fifty metres unopposed to score the killer punch. Sinfield’s attempt hit the post. The final score was 22-10, but to the Leeds Rhinos – a famous double over the reigning champions.

 

We’re now joint top of the engage Super League table with Bradford Bulls now lapping behind after their lose at Wigan Warriors on Friday night. Our next match is just down the road from KR. Another team involved in the salary cap debate.

 

Here’s what it looks like at the top of the table with all the top four clubs playing on Friday evening;

 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	PTS
1	St Helens	19	14	0	5	617	293	28
2	Leeds	19	14	0	5	521	357	28
3	Bradford	19	13	0	6	604	438	26
4	Wigan	19	10	0	9	431	383	20

 

Tony Smith:

"For Rob Burrow to reach 200 games shows how resilient he is and how durable he is for his size.

"You'd expect a little guy to miss games but he's never injured and nearly always plays the full 80 minutes every week.

"Rob's try was nice but then all tries against St Helens are nice. I thought his and Kevin Sinfield's kicking games were outstanding and that was key for us."