YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith reflects on Leeds Rhinos' extra-time win over London Broncos, plus a defeat to St Helens in Women's Super League.
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00:00It's been a long day here at AMT Headingley. The academy game is just coming to its conclusion
00:08in the background. Leeds beating Catalan Tigers at the moment. At the start of the day there
00:13was a defeat for Rhinos Women against St Helens. Another disappointing performance really.
00:19It's their third defeat this season, they've all been to Saints. 16-6. Leeds played well
00:26in patches, there wasn't an awful lot in it. They defended well but Saints' defence was
00:31outstanding and Leeds just didn't take the chances, that's what it boiled down to. Saints
00:36seem to have a bit of a hood over Leeds at the moment and they need to get over that.
00:41Obviously if they're going to manage to win something this season, I don't think there's
00:45much between the teams, but Saints at the moment just seem to have that little bit extra
00:50when it really matters. That was a good game, which is more than can be said for the Rhinos
00:57men's performance in the match against London Broncos, which was really poor. Leeds got
01:02away with one, beating London 17-16 in golden point extra time. They were 16-10 down at
01:09half time and that's why it stayed until ten minutes from the end of the game when Reece
01:13Martin scored a nice try. And then in extra time, Brodie Croft kept his nerve to land
01:19a well set-up drop goal and that sealed it for Leeds. It avoided what would have been
01:25a really embarrassing result, but it was a poor performance. Leeds didn't impress at
01:31all. They were one of two players who did okay. Croft was one of those best players,
01:35still was the match winner and was involved in a couple of tries. But Matt Froley went
01:41pretty well and Andy Ackers gave Leeds some spark off the bench, which was desperately
01:44needed. But there weren't far too many errors. They were casual. They didn't really manage
01:50to get out of the first gear for much of the game until that is a bit of a scuffle in the
01:57second half and that livened them up a little bit. But I think London will feel it was one
02:02that got away and Leeds are going to have to be a lot better if they're going to have
02:06any chance of qualifying for the top six. On that evidence, they're still playing well
02:12and they've still held their capabilities. The coach for the rest of the year, whoever
02:17that may be, we're hearing it might be Brad Arthur coming in until the end of this season.
02:22Whoever it is, he's going to have to find some spark from somewhere because at the moment
02:27they're just not playing well enough on a consistent basis.