The Rhinos were licking their wounds from the bruising round six tie at Knowsley Road. Knowing that we face the Saints again next week I wasn’t sure whether to expect a rampant side out to show their pedigree or an injured beast licking its wounds and trying to heal before it faces its foe again in another weeks time.

Would the Rhinos give the Dragons a bloody nose or would they play this one with one eye on the Challenge Cup final, or is that fourth round next week?

We bring you as much of the action as I can here

We have come to expect nothing other than excellently respected silence for the passing of one of the rugby league family and tonight’s minutes silence was no exception. It was a moving minute were our thoughts quite rightly moved just down the road at Wakefield.

Despite having lost five of the previous six encounters against the Rhinos Catalans seemed to start the game in confident mood and they superbly kicked a 40-20 on two minutes, and their first set, after the currently out of form Scott Donald committed the cardinal sin of letting the ball bounce and then not recovering quickly enough to stop the ball entering touch. The subsequent play threatened the Leeds try line but came to nothing after a scrappy pass from Olivier Elima gave possession back to Leeds.

On three minutes Catalans again threatened the Leeds line and a promising kick to the corner beat Webb but to the south stands relief the Catalan attempted try was ruled out and resulted in a 20m restart.

On five minutes Donald knocked on and Catalans broke well from the resulting scrum leaving plenty of space for a fast paced Steven Bell to run into and the rhinos were four points behind. Bosc missed the conversion and Leeds were looking for a quick response to settle the nerves and the moans coming from the south stand.

On ten a series of cross field passes from McGuire to Senior ended in the hands of Ryan Hall who found space in the corner to get over the white wash and level the score. Sinfield missed the conversion but it only remained all square for the next five minutes.

On 15, as Leeds again pressed the Catalans line, a Burrow pass found Jones-Buchanan who did a wonderful run, shifting direction and losing the markers to allow him to go over just to one side of the posts. He left Sinfield an easy kick and the Rhinos were 10 – 4 up.

After the early excitement the game settled for the next fifteen minutes with solid rugby from both sides although Leeds always looked untroubled.

On 32 Leeds again pressed the Catalans defence and a long pass from Sinfield found McGuire on the wing who squeezed in at the corner and Leeds were starting to look very comfortable. Sinfield converted from the touchline and it looked like we were going to go in at the break 16 – 4 to the good.

However I was mistaken and the final three minutes of the first half would yield another ten points to add to our tally. On 37 a kick through to the corner from McGuire was collected brilliantly on the bounce by Hall who then went over for the try. Sinfield missed the subsequent kick in the tricky conditions.

On 39 minutes, the last set of the half, Senior broke out from the Leeds 20meter line and in a beautiful sequence the ball moved to Hall and finally to Webb for another try, we couldn’t ask for anything more to put us in an excellent position for the second half, Sinfield added the extras and as the hooter went we were going in 26 – 4 up and firmly in control.

The first ten minutes after the break saw sloppy play from both sides, Leeds giving away four penalties in quick succession followed by Catalans managing to give Leeds three in a row, both side absorbed the pressure of the penalties until the 53 minute. Webb off loaded to Gibson who went in at the corner for a try which Sinfield failed to convert.

After a pressing effort toward the Leeds line on 56 minutes a grubber through under the sticks was ineffectively dealt with by the Leeds defence and Bosc capitalised taking the ball to ground right between the sticks. He converted his own try and the score was 30 – 10.

On 60 minutes as Leeds pressed the Catalans defence a chip kick from Burrow (I stand to be corrected!) was taken nicely by Ablett who went over under the sticks and the subsequent conversion moved us to a 36 – 10 lead.

On 66 minutes some excellent passing from Catalans led to a great pass from Jason Croker to the right wing found Vincent Duport who found space in the corner and went over. Bosc missed the conversion and the score was 36 – 14.

Catalans got a 40 – 20 in the first half was matched by a Sinfield 40 – 20 on 69 minutes but Leeds couldn’t make it count and the score remained the same until the 76th minute. Ablett was stopped from crossing the line under the posts and from the subsequent play the ball was carried over the line from Diskin. Burrow added the extras and game came to its conclusion with Leeds managing a satisfying 42 – 14 win over the French side.

In the end this felt like a comfortable win, a win in which despite some exciting and inventive play from the Rhinos, felt as though they hadn’t really got out of third gear. I hope that the lads were letting the deep bruises from last week recover for the undoubtedly awesome task of next week. Catalans didn’t play badly but in the end the skill level between the players of the two sides showed through and it wasn’t that much of a contest.

Man of the Match Poll

Points		Player	%
10		Hall	33%
8		McGuire	22%
5		Jones-Buchanan	17%
5		Sinfield	17%
3		Gibson	6%
3		Burrow	6%

See here for season standings.

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Match Facts

Rhinos

Dragons

No.		Player		T		G		DG				No.		Player		T		G		DG
1		Webb		1								1		Greenshields
2		Donald										18		Duport		1
20		Gibson		1								3		Bell		1
4		Senior										15		Baile
5		Hall		2								5		Pelo
6		McGuire		1								6		Bosc		1		1
7		Burrow				1						7		Perry
8		Leuluai										23		Ryles
14		Diskin		1								9		McGuire
10		Peacock										16		Elima
11		Jones-Buchanan		1								12		Crocker
18		Ablett		1								26		Bird
13		Sinfield				4						13		Mounis
17		Kirke										10		Guisset
12		Lauitiiti										14		Carlaw
19		Burgess										17		Gossard
23		Watkins										24		Casty

Kick Off:		20:00
Half-Time:		26-04
Referee:		Ben Thaler
Crowd:		13,475

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