St Helens 40 Leeds Rhinos 8 - ‘Baby Rhinos’ stand up for themselves

LEEDS RHINOS’ youngsters made a point, of sorts, at St Helens last night.
James Harrison flies in to stop Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.
(Picture: Bruce Rollinson)James Harrison flies in to stop Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.
(Picture: Bruce Rollinson)
James Harrison flies in to stop Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

Two months ago Rhinos were put to the sword by Saints at Emerald Headingley, suffering an embarrassing 48-0 drubbing.

The Leeds side on duty that day was far stronger than the one coach Richard Agar fielded last night, but they conceded eight fewer points and managed a couple of tries themselves.

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With Leeds including only four of their Wembley 17 from six days earlier, it was always going to be a case of damage limitation for the ‘Baby Rhinos’ and they would probably have taken a 40-8 scoreline if it had been offered before kick-off.

Brad Dwyer runs through.
(Picture: Bruce Rollinson)Brad Dwyer runs through.
(Picture: Bruce Rollinson)
Brad Dwyer runs through. (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

Leeds were never in the contest the way a similar side had been in previous hit outs against Catalans Dragons and Warrington Wolves, but they certainly weren’t embarrassed and – although the game had gone by that stage – they were the better team in the third quarter.

Having trailed 22-0 at the break, Leeds avoided a whitewash 12 minutes into the second half when Cameron Smith went over from a lovely pass by Callum McLelland, though the loose-forward – who was left out of the Cup final team – hooked his conversion attempt wide from a relatively easy angle.

Then after back-to-back tries by Saints, Leeds got over the line again, through teenager winger Liam Tindall from Sam Walters’ offload, the kick again being missed.

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Saints were very impressive in patches and far too good overall, but in the second half they scored three tries to two and Rhinos could take heart from that.

Callum Smith scores for the Rhinos at St Helens  (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)Callum Smith scores for the Rhinos at St Helens  (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)
Callum Smith scores for the Rhinos at St Helens (Picture: Bruce Rollinson)

Saints will have noted the Leeds youngsters’ impressive efforts in their two previous hit-outs and there was no complacency from the reigning champions early on.

They took a professional approach, particularly in the first half, which in its way was a credit to Leeds and the scare their rookies had given Catalans and Warrington.

It was Leeds’ second successive league defeat and third loss in four games in the competition, leaving their top-four hopes in the balance.

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All those defeats were with a young team and it is a shame Leeds’ full-strength lineup didn’t get to test themselves against three of Super League’ top sides,#

However, Rhinos will feel the sacrifice was worth it to bring the Coral Challenge Cup back to Emerald Headingley.

The likes of Tom Holroyd, Mikolaj Oledzki, James Harrison and Walters aren’t what anyone would describe as small, but there was a significant physical difference between the teams and while Saints marched upfield in their sets, Leeds had to rely on errors and penalties for much of their go-forward.

They reached Saints’ 20 only once in the first half, but – as one-sided as that period was, there were positive moments for Leeds.

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Alex Sutcliffe put in a huge defensive effort, including a massive hit on Jonny Lomax, Jack Walker made a fine try-saving tackle to deny an on-rushing Regan Grace and at one stage in the first half Leeds held out through three successive sets on their own line.

One of Saints’ own youngsters, left-centre Josh Simm, scored a hat-trick, all in the first half

The 19-year-old is an exciting prospect, but the advantage he has over Leeds’ rookies at this stage is he is playing in a team full of experienced players.

It will be interesting to see how the likes of Jack Broadbent and Liam Tindall fare when they get the opportunity to do the same.

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Simm opened the scoring inside three minutes, slicing through for a fine solo try from Zeb Taia’s offload.

Saints’ Alex Walmsley was sin-binned for dangerous contact on Sutcliffe after 11 minutes, but the hosts doubled their lead while down to 12 men, James Roby dummying into a gap from acting-half on the last before offloading to sending Taia over.

Walmsley returned midway through the set from a penalty, after Leeds were caught offside, which ended in Saints’ third try and second for Simm, who profited from nice hands by halves Theo Fages and Jonny Lomax.

Lomax was the provider for Simm’s hat-trick, three minutes before the interval.

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It took Saints 23 minutes of the second half to add to their tally and by that stage Leeds had got points on the board.

A McLelland kick was spilled by Grace to begin a spell of pressure which continued through another Saints error and then another effective kick from the Leeds half-back.

After Smith had cut the gap, Saints scored back-to back tries through Fages and Kevin Naiqama and at that stage Leeds could have collapsed.

They ran out of steam against both Catalans and Warrington, but this time added a second try, eight minutes from time, when Tindall went over from Walters’ offload, though Saints completed the scoring through an Aaron Smith try which Lachlan Coote converted to take his tally of goals to six.

The penalty count, from Cup final referee, Liam Moore was six-five in Leeds’ favor (three-two to Saints in the first half) and both teams had two set restarts.

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