'We showed composure': Jake Connor's boot caps a show of poise from Leeds Rhinos
Maika Sivo took his season’s tally to 22 tries as Leeds weathered a fightback in Toulouse to climb back to the top of Super League table with a 48-24 victory in France – to the delight of Brad Arthur.
The Rhinos, who at one point led 30-0, were ahead within three minutes when stand-off Brodie Croft made the most of the Toulouse defence’s failure to deal with Jake Connor’s kick, and the scrum-half added the conversion.
Winger Sivo was handed a 17th-minute walk-in in the corner by Ash Handley’s quick hands, and centre Harry Newman powered his way over five minutes later with Connor converting both to make it 18-0.
Fergie McCormack made no mistake after full-back Cesar Rouge had spilled another high ball from Connor, who duly obliged with the extras, and Newman repeated the dose seven minutes before the break after Luke Polselli had faltered under another aerial assault with Connor on target once again.
However, the hosts reduced the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Rouge’s line break allowed Thomas Lacans to go over, and Jake Shorrocks’ kick made it 30-6 at the break.
The French side clawed their way to within 18 points when Polselli collected Benjamin Laguerre’s kick-through within seconds of the restart and Shorrocks made it two from two from the touchline.
Lacans went over with 48 minutes gone to further boost Toulouse’s hopes of an unlikely comeback, and they were right back in it six minutes later when Laguerre accepted Polselli’s pass and went over in the corner after McCormack had knocked on with Shorrocks again on target.
Sivo steadied Leeds’ nerves when he claimed his second of the night before Chris Hankinson and replacement Cameron Smith made sure with their side’s seventh and eight respectively as time ran down, Connor maintaining his perfect record with the boot to finish with 16 points.
Asked what he was thinking when Olympique got back to within six points, Leeds head coach Brad Arthur told Sky Sports: “I was excited about the challenge.
“They were playing with energy, everything was sticking and the bounce of the ball was going their way, so I was really excited to see, ‘righto, where are we at? How can we get back on top of this game? Can we show some composure or do we panic?’.
“Full credit to the boys, they showed composure, led by Jake (Connor), and we didn’t panic, and that just shows another evolution in our game and a bit of growth in our game.”