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SLXII - Round V
10th March 2007
We're An Embarrassment
One shock stunned the Rhinos fans as the teams were announced...most experienced Superleague player Keith Senior was missing through injury and replaced by
our man Ashley Gibson. It was a chance for Ash to shine.
The video referee ruled out an early chance for Jones-Buchanan after he was adjudged to have knocked-on in the act of touching down. But it was Rovers who
saw the first points hit the scoreboard after five minutes when Morton kicked a penalty after Silverwood judged the Rhinos as being not square in the tackle.
It was 2-0 to the home side.
On ten minutes Diskin earned a penalty by running at the marker. Leeds moved the ball left through several pairs of hands and Gibson went over next to flag
for the opener. Sinfield converted brilliantly from the touchline to take the lead.
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Leeds were starting to dominate. On nineteen Lee Smith almost got the ball down but Cockayne got his boot under the ball and Smith was ruled to have
knocked-on.
McGuire and Donald combined well soon after but good KR defence kept us out.
Then on thirty-one the Rhinos got a shock. Webster, the KR skipper, collected his own chip over to score under the sticks as the Rhinos defence were all at sixes and
sevens. Morton goaled to put the home side back into the lead.
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Mixed Fortunes |
On thirty-five minutes we got a massive amount of luck. Webb collected his own grubber in mid-field and passed to Burrow who passed on to McGuire. McGuire
passed the ball seemingly a couple of metres forward and bounced it off the ground to Smith who collected and went over in the corner. Sinfield failed with
the touchline conversion but we were back in the lead at 10-08.
It was a lead that we took into the half-time interval, and every Leeds fan knew that we were lucky to be in-front, in what was turning into a real arm
wrestle.
With the second half just five minutes old, and after the Rhinos had been defending for almost the full five minutes, Cockayne put through a grubber which
turned Webb round and Dyer won the race to touch down. Morton goaled to put the home side four points ahead at 14-10. The lead had once again swapped hands,
this was going to be a nailbiting half of rugby.
From the restart Brent Webb slipped on the take and knocked the ball on. We were right back under pressure. On the fifth the Rhinos were ruled offside, Webb
again the culprit, and Morton slotted over the goal for a six point lead.
Missed Crucial Goal |
On fifty-five the Rhinos had been under the real pressure, having just been forced to drop-out under the sticks. A cross-field kick on the last was collected
by Bauer who scored in the corner. Morton goaled from the touchline to make it 22-10 for the home side. The Rhinos were being blitzed, it was starting to
look like this could be an embarrassing trip to Craven Park with our first loss in over twenty years.
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There were just over twenty minutes left and we needed to score three times to win.
With fifteen minutes to go we got the first of the three that we needed. Once again we were fortunate to get head and feed at a scrum after a KR knock-on. The ball was quickly moved left through several pairs of hands and on a massive overlap Ashley Gibson went over for his second of the night. Sinfield missed the conversion and we still trailed by eight.
On seventy minutes Peacock stormed over from five metres and looked like he'd grounded the ball. Silverwood went to the video referee and Peacock was judged
as held-up. It was the third Rhinos no-try of the game.
With a minute left a high ball caused confusion in the KR defence and the ball ended up with Gibson who got his hat-trick, touching the ball down on its point. Sinfield converted to narrow the margin to just two points but the clock was nearly out. Leeds surrendered the ball from the kick-off and it was all over. The embarrassment was complete.
All credit to KR, they threw everything at us tonight and deserved the two points. The Rhinos made too many mistakes and didn't turn try scoring chances into
points. It was a great game of rugby league and I can imagine that the neutral really enjoyed it...I however, did not. Early season optimism is now waning as
we have registered losses against two sides who before the season started were likely candidates for bottom spot.
Man of the Match Poll
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Points | Player | % |
10 | Gibson | 47% |
8 | Ellis | 23% |
6 | Webb | 17% |
4 | Burrow | 6% |
4 | McGuire | 2% |
1 | Diskin | 2% |
1 | Donald | 2% |
1 | Peacock | 2% |
See here for season standings.
Match Facts
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No.
|
Player
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T
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G
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DG
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No.
|
Player
|
T
|
G
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DG
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1
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Webb
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|
|
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1
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Cockayne
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|
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2
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Donald
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|
|
|
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21
|
Dyer
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1
|
|
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|
3
|
Toopi
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|
|
|
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22
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Bauer
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1
|
|
|
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20
|
Gibson
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3
|
|
|
|
4
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Morton
|
|
5
|
|
|
5
|
Smith
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1
|
|
|
|
5
|
Ford
|
|
|
|
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6
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McGuire
|
|
|
|
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6
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Murrell
|
|
|
|
|
7
|
Burrow
|
|
|
|
|
7
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Webster
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1
|
|
|
|
16
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Bailey
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|
|
|
|
8
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Aizue
|
|
|
|
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9
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Diskin
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|
|
|
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9
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Fisher
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|
|
|
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10
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Peacock
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|
|
|
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20
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Vella
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|
|
|
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11
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Jones-Buchanan
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|
|
|
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16
|
Netherton
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|
|
|
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12
|
Ellis
|
|
|
|
|
28
|
Chester
|
|
|
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13
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Sinfield
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2
|
|
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14
|
Gene
|
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14
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Lauiti'iti
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|
|
|
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10
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Tangata-Toa
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|
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15
|
Thackray
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|
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11
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Morrison
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8
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Leuleui
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|
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13
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Gallagher
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|
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23
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Tansey
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|
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15
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Gannon
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Kick Off:
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18:05
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Half-Time:
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10-08
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Referee:
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Richard Silverwood
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Crowd:
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8,086
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