Aidan Sezer urges Leeds Rhinos to use comeback win at Catalans Dragons as a catalyst

The scrum-half also revealed he was playing with a fractured hand when he raced over for his golden-point try to seal a stunning 36-32 success.

Rhinos played almost the entire second half with 12 men after Matt Prior was initially sin-binned and then sent-off.

They trailed 30-6 as late as the 57th minute, but three tries from Richie Myler and one to Brad Dwyer – plus four conversions and a late equalising penalty by Rhyse Martin – sent the game into extra-time.

Sezer had already missed with a drop goal attempt when he accepted a pass from Zak Hardaker and darted through a gap in Catalans’ defence. “I knew from the set before there was plenty of pressure on the drop kick,” he recalled.

“There always is in golden-point.

“I didn’t have much time to get the kick away, I just took off; it was more of an instinctive type of play, it opened up and we got the win.”

Sezer played for Huddersfield Giants when Leeds hit back from 20 points down to win in golden-point extra-time on August 2, 2020.

Last weekend’s comeback was the greatest in Rhinos’ history and he said: “It was huge. The character the boys showed was unbelievable.

“To come away with a win like that was nothing short of amazing. It’s not easy to go from the north of England to the south of France in summer.

“The work our S and C [strength and conditioning] staff have been putting us through the last couple of months, preparing for the games in France, paid dividends. It was good to go back home with the two points and we can build off that for this week.”

The victory at third-placed Catalans came a week after a home win over Wigan Warriors who are second in Betfred Super League.

Leeds are eighth, but could climb into the play-offs this weekend if Hull lose at Huddersfield on Friday and Rhinos beat sixth-placed Salford at Headingley on Sunday.

“I think the belief’s always there,” said Sezer. “We will take it one week at a time, as our coach Rohan [Smith] always says.

“There’s six more games left and we’re trying to knock them off as they come and prepare really well during the week.”