Leeds fire up in the second half

An entertaining comeback win for the Rhinos against the Saints 

Despite Leeds scoring the first points with a penalty kick and spending most of the time in the opposition half, it was Saint Helens who came out on top at the end of the first half. Both teams found a try through the middle, but Saints found one on either wing too. The most impressive of these came when Tristan Sailor touched down on a pin point grubber kick from Jack Welsby to the left corner. 

The biggest problem for Leeds in the first half was definitely around not being clinical enough. The goal line defence was strong from the Saints, broken properly only once by a pass on the inside, but it certainly felt like Leeds should have won the first half with so much ball. Saints took all their chances on the brief occasions they got close Leeds’ line, so went in 16-8 up after the first 40 minutes.

A slight flare up comes to an end.

The second half was a completely different story for the Rhinos. More space opened up on the edges as the Saint Helens' defence tired and got sucked ever so slightly more into the centre of the pitch. This was no doubt the cumulative effect of a consistently rapid speed of play and bulldozing runs led by the likes of Mikolaj Oledzki. 

When given good early field position from an incredible Jake Conor kick (forcing a goal line drop out), Leeds capitalised and sent Harry Newman through a gap on the right for a crucial try at 46 minutes. Converted, this try put Leeds 2 points behind an unchanged Saints score of 16. It took only a couple of minutes and a penalty kick to make things level. 

Leeds' dominance only grew as the second half developed, and it was poor discipline from an increasingly frustrated Saints side which helped decide the final result. There had been quite a bit of needle throughout the game and plenty of instances of players squaring up to one another. Indeed, this physicality was to be expected from two sides at the top of the table going head to head. Nonetheless, Klemmer got it wrong on 73 minutes and was sent to the sin bin when he hit his man high and off the ball.

Leeds celebrate their win on the final whistle. (Photo blurred in my excitement!)

Most importantly, the penalty which came with Klemmer’s sin bin allowed Connor to put Leeds ahead by 2. The extra man also created further space for Sivo to score a final try at 78 minutes. When this was converted Leeds had just a couple of minutes to defend a two score lead. Cameron Smith received a sin bin, but even then Saints did not have enough time to score any closing points of their own. 

Writing this on Friday afternoon, Leeds sit at the top of the Super League table with 20 points.