Leeds Rhinos must be fed up with the sight of St Helens. It was the Rhinos’ seventh consecutive defeat at Headingley, and although the latest defeat came in the Super League a week ago, this defeat will sting even more given the current circumstances.
With a place in the quarter-finals of this year’s Challenge Cup on the line, you’d think this would be the perfect time for Leeds to put an end to Mount St Helens and end their disastrous run in rugby league’s most prestigious competition.
Alas, old habits don’t shake so easily and, in the end, it was a familiar story: St Helens prevailed, Leeds were knocked out of the cup at the first hurdle for the fourth consecutive time, and it was a result that few could argue with.
While last week’s defeat in the Super League was largely a close game, here the Rhinos were completely outplayed in almost every aspect of the game, from start to finish, in testing conditions against the Saints The team handled it better of the two teams.
It means their path to Wembley in June remains full of energy, with Leeds awaiting Challenge Cup victory in front of crowds for the first time since April 2019 for at least another year.
“I’m very pleased with the players,” St. Helens coach Paul Wellens said. “Tonight we’re back in the position we won last week and it’s a mental challenge. This is the Challenge Cup and if you don’t perform well there will be serious consequences. The way the players handled it was first class and we were there Dominated most of the time.”
The fact that Saints shrugged off the injury withdrawal of centre-half Lewis Dodd made the win even more impressive.
They were completely dominant in the opening 40 minutes and had Dodd been on the field to lead the Saints’ attack, the game could easily have been over by halftime given the difference in play between the two sides.
Heavy rain made the rugby difficult from the start and Jonny Lomax’s two first-quarter penalties opened up a 4-0 lead, underlining how valuable points were.
Time and time again, Saints pressed the Leeds defense without a killer pass, but when Lomax threw a stray ball that was intercepted by Harry Newman to finally give Rhinos the lead in the game, you thought Find out if their profligacy on offense will come back to haunt the visitors.
However, a big moment came on the stroke of half-time when Daryl Clark ignored the attention of four Leeds defenders and forced his way through from close range, feeding Lomax a simple conversion to make it 1-0 on half-time. 10-6.
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Bevan French’s hat-trick helped Wigan avoid a crushing defeat at Sheffield Eagles and progress to the Challenge Cup quarter-finals. Sheffield won the famous trophy against Warriors at Wembley in 1998 and were looking to shock again at half-time.
Liam Marshall looked to have the hosts in control when French broke through and scored after 17 minutes, but the Eagles’ second-string side had other ideas as Matty Marsh and Matty Dawson-Jones tried to get them Lead by two points. A goal from Oliver Roberts allowed Wigan to regain the lead through Jake Wardle early in the second half.
Australia’s French team scored twice in a row to put the Super League side back in the driver’s seat. Evan Hodgson added Sheffield’s third try but Wigan broke out in a late riot with Kruise Leeming, Patrick Mago and Martial Marshall won 44-18.
Last year’s Challenge Cup runner-up Hull Kingston Wanderers Easily advance to the quarterfinals with seven kills salford. Ryan Hall scored twice in the first half and the Rangers won 40-0. AP average
“The better team won today, last week I wasn’t sure,” Leeds coach Rohan Smith admitted after the game.
“I don’t think we were at the level we needed to be, we just didn’t defend enough.”
The half-time break didn’t change the situation either. Leeds have adopted a more improvised attacking approach this year and when it clicks it’s fun to watch. But when they face a defensively resolute team like the Saints, they can be easily put down, as the last two meetings between the sides have shown.
Indeed, Leeds rarely looked like scoring in the second half and it was no surprise when Saints held Rhinos close.
A rather tepid 20 minutes after half-time saw little incident and as the visitors again put pressure on the Leeds defence, they kept the ball in Saints’ final tackle when Jon Benn Jon Bennison’s cross from the corner gave them a fatal blow.
With their defensive prowess at the other end, it was ultimately enough to earn them a place in the last eight: but St Helens ended the game with a fine performance, Alex Walmsley’s fourth cross, Brought a touch of dominance to the visiting team. The score line for this game.
