It was 9th v 5th in the final match of Magic Weekend Saturday in Newcastle, as Leeds sought to continue their climb into the play-offs and Castleford looked to secure their place in the post-season clashes which decide the title.

After a shakey start to the season, when both teams looked like they would be struggling with the opponents in the day's opening match and looking fearfully at the bottom of the table and possible relegation.

But the Tigers and the Rhinos had both started putting a winning run together in recent weeks and the question at St James's Park was who would continue that run and who would stutter to another loss.

A win for Hull FC would see them move back ahead of the Castleford Tigers and into fifth spot in the table, whilst today’s visitors, the Leeds Rhinos are still in all sorts of trouble at the wrong end of the table and still looking to secure their Super League position for next season.

Someone wise soul once said ´if the Rhinos can keep thirteen on the field for eighty minutes´ they could be dangerous´, but it´s been a long time since they´ve not been well represented at the disciplinary panel on a weekly basis.

Perhaps today would be the day.

The bookies certainly thought so and had given the home side a four-point start on the handicap coupon.

Making the Rhinos the favourites to pick up the points and lift themselves into eighth position ahead of the Magic Weekend.

If there was one foregone conclusion from round sixteen of Super League 2022, it was that St Helens would defeat the Rhinos and extend their lead at the top of the table in the Thursday evening fixture broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Both sides made several changes from the sides which lined up a fortnight ago, Saints had a few missing and named Bennison at full back and Sironen in the second row, while Leeds notably had Sezer back in the halves and skipper Leeming at hooker.

The bookies had given the Rhinos a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, they had little chance of registering their sixth win of the campaign.

A resurgent Leeds Rhinos travelled to the Huddersfield Giants to take on a side who took little time to dismiss their Challenge Cup disappointment and show that their focus for the 2022 season is now well and truly making the Old Trafford Grand Final in October, while the Rhinos would settle for making the play-offs as they struggle to get out of the bottom half of the table.

Giants coach Ian Watson stuck with Pryce in the half-backs due to the continued unavailability of Fages, and was also without O´Brien and Russell, while Rohan Smith´s Rhinos were without Bentley, Gannon and skipper Kruise Leeming who missed out through illness The home side were slight favourites with the bookies to consolidate their place in the top four, with the Rhinos being given a four-point start on the handicap coupon as they looked to overtake the Tigers and move into seventh place.

It was 9th v 5th in the final match of Magic Weekend Saturday in Newcastle, as Leeds sought to continue their climb into the play-offs and Castleford looked to secure their place in the post-season clashes which decide the title.

After a shakey start to the season, when both teams looked like they would be struggling with the opponents in the day's opening match and looking fearfully at the bottom of the table and possible relegation.

But the Tigers and the Rhinos had both started putting a winning run together in recent weeks and the question at St James's Park was who would continue that run and who would stutter to another loss.

Normally a fixture associated with the play-off places, it was eighth against tenth as the Warrington Wolves hosted the Leeds Rhinos in an important game in the bottom half of the table as both sides looked to maintain a place on the fringes of the top six, the home side knowing that a win would lift them to at least seventh and the Rhinos looking to jump above their hosts into eighth.

Daryl Powell´s Wolves had new loan signing Kyle Amor on the bench in a strong looking line up after almost a fortnight off, while Leeds boss Rohan Smith made an enforced change to an equally rested side which beat Wakefield last time out to accommodate the most recent suspension of James Bentley.

Warrington were the favourites with the bookies, the Rhinos getting an eight-point start on the handicap coupon.

Both the Leeds Rhinos and Wakefield Trinity came into tonight’s game at Emerald Headingley knowing that it was a must win game at the bottom of the table with both sides looking to put some daylight between themselves and Toulouse Olympique XIII in the relegation spot.

Wakefield have lost their last six outings including last weekends humiliating loss to Toulouse, while the Rhinos returned to losing ways last time out against Salford after picking up wins in the two previous rounds.

Trinity were given an eight point start on the coupon, the Rhinos expected to bring home the points which could lift them up to ninth, should Salford lose their game against the Castleford Tigers.

Ninth faced tenth at the AJ Bell Stadium as the Salford Red Devils played hosts to a Leeds Rhinos side under their new coach, Rohan Smith, for the first time and boasting the return of several first team players after their injury lay-offs as they looked to register their third consecutive victory.

Paul Rowley’s side were looking to spoil the Rhinos party with a win which would lift them above their opponents as the scramble away from the bottom spot continued for both sides, with the bookies struggling to separate the sides, having made the Rhinos slight favourites.

The Women’s Challenge Cup Final, the first game of a superb Elland Road triple header, saw the top two female sides in the country up against one another as St Helens faced the Leeds Rhinos for the first silverware of the season.

The game was played out in front of the BBC TV cameras and shown live to the nation on BBC2 and what a great advert for the game, and specifically the women´s game it was.

Saints knocked the Rhinos out at the semi-final stage last season before going on to beat York in the final and the Rhinos were runners up to Saints in the Women´s Super League last season.

It really was a match between the two best and most successful sides in the Women´s game.

The Round Ten fixture with most significance for the rest of Super League 2022 was the bottom of the table clash between the Leeds Rhinos and Toulouse Olympique XIII as the French side looked to secure the two points which would lift them above the Rhinos and push Jamie Jones-Buchanan´s side into bottom spot.

The two sides have met twice before: in the Challenge Cup in 2005 and in the Super 8´s play-off in 2018, the Leeds side emerging as victors on both previous occasions.

 But with Toulouse having pushed Hull KR last weekend and with a victory over St Helens under their belt, they came into the game high on confidence that they could spring an upset.

The bookies were struggling to split the two sides, giving the visitors a just a six-point start on the handicap coupon.

Leeds Rhinos have announced the appointment of Rohan Smith as new head coach at Emerald Headingley as the ex-Bradford Bulls coach (70% win rate over 20 games in 2016-7) and son of Rugby League coaching legend Brian Smith.

The forty-year-old will start immediately and has been given a three-and-a-half-year contract which will take him through until at least the end of the 2025 season.

It is understood that interim coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan will remain in charge for Friday’s game against Toulouse and for the round eleven match against Hull KR.

After thrashing the Leeds Rhinos in the Challenge Cup earlier in the season, the Castleford Tigers came into Easter Mondays Round Nine West Yorkshire derby match with high expectations of a repeat performance to lift themselves closer to safety and pile the misery on Rhinos interim coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan.

The home side had James Clare in for a rested Greg Eden, and young speedster Jason Qareqare on the bench while in the absence of many first choices a youthful Rhinos gave debuts to Max Simpson and most exciting for the Leeds faithful, Jack Sinfield, as both looked to start what they hope will be long Leeds careers.

The bookies gave the Rhinos an eight-point start on the handicap coupon but a win for the Tigers could lift them as high as sixth, the Rhinos unable to improve their league position with a win but it would edge them closer to safety from relegation.

With the Leeds Rhinos languishing in second bottom spot and the Huddersfield Giants having a fantastic start to the season, there was only one possible winner as the two West Yorkshire sides came together for the Rivals round at the start of the Easter weekend.

With Wigan and St Helens meeting tomorrow the Giants had a chance of enduing round eight in second position but the Rhinos knew that should Toulouse spring a surprise and put one over the Catalans Dragons in the first ever Super League French derby, then Jamie Jones-Buchanan´s side could go into the weekend at the bottom of the pile with a game against Castleford to look forward to on Monday afternoon.

The bookies were, however, a little nervous and only gave the Rhinos a two-point start on the handicap coupon, they were expecting it to be closer than many Leeds fans dared hope.

If there was one certainty in round seven of Super League 2022 it was that the Leeds Rhinos would lose to St Helens, the only real issue being how many points the Rhinos would ship in and whether they would be able to get over the whitewash themselves.

The home side were without the injured Aidan Sezer so Liam Sutcliffe was in the halves alongside Blake Austin while Saints were without Alex Walmsley but there was celebration as James Roby made his 500th career appearance.

In our pre-match Twitter poll, no-one was predicting a Leeds win, most people predicting that Saints would win by 1 to 24 points, and the bookies were giving the Rhinos a fourteen-point start on the coupon.

Two sides with Wembley appearances in the last couple of seasons met for a mouth-watering sixth round Challenge Cup match as the Leeds Rhinos hosted the Castleford Tigers in what is, in 2022, a battle between two of the sides who are currently nervously looking over their shoulders at the relegation spot.

The Rhinos, under the temporary management of Jamie Jones-Buchanan following the departure of Richard Agar last Monday, were slight favourites to make the most of home advantage and secure progress.

But try telling that to Lee Radford´s Castleford Tigers who came into the game fancying their chances of finishing off the wounded Rhinos.

A loss today would effectively signal the end of the season for one of these two sides, after just six rounds of Super League and one cup match.

In the current disciplinary climate, there were as many questions about how many cards there would be, as there was about the outcome of tonight´s Super League match between the Salford Red Devils and the Leeds Rhinos at the AJ Bell Stadium.

The Red Devils made several changes to their line-up after last week’s loss, with Ryan Lannon and Elijah Taylor amongst the additions to the starting line-up, while the Rhinos welcomed back skipper Kruise Leeming and new signing James Bentley after their suspensions In our pre-game Twitter poll 67% of voters believed that it would be the Red Devils who emerged victorious, and the bookies agreed, giving the visitors a two-point start on the handicap coupon.

After getting off the mark last weekend with a win over Wakefield, the Rhinos were looking to back it up with a victory over a Hull FC side who lost to the Castleford Tigers, allowing them to register their first points of the season.

A win for Brett Hodgson´s side could see them as high as third, while a win for Richard Agar´s side by six or more would see them go above FC and into sixth.

Leeds were without the services of Harry Newman (injured) and skipper Kruise Leeming (suspended), while FC welcomed back Joe Cator and Mitieli Vulikijapani to their ranks.

Our pre-match Twitter Poll went 60% in favour of a Rhinos win and the bookies agreed as they gave FC a twelve-point start on the coupon.

It was a basement battle at Belle Vue as pointless Wakefield Trinity faced a pointless Leeds Rhinos with the two rivals, separated by a fifteen-mile journey on the M1, went head-to-head to open their points account for 2022.

The winner would know that they would still have a long way to go, but the losers would be low on confidence, and already with a mountain to climb to get near the play-offs.

Wakefield coach Willie Poching had Mason Lino, Kelepi Tanginoa, Lewis Murphy, and Yusuf Aydin in his seventeen, while the Rhinos, pretty in pink, welcomed back Harry Newman, Rhyse Martin and David Fusitu´a into their starting thirteen in a major boost for the visitors.

The Leeds Rhinos returned to Emerald Headingley still seeking their opening win of the 2022 Super League campaign and things didn´t get any easier as they came up against last season´s Minor Premiers and the side widely tipped for a second consecutive Grand Final appearance, the Catalans Dragons.

There were a couple of changes for home coach Richard Agar who replaced Donaldson with O´Connor and brought Dwyer back after his one game suspension, and after sneaking a win against Wakefield Trinity last week Steve McNamara brought Davies and Jullien along with Seguir on the bench.

The Rhinos knew that a four-point win would lift them into sixth, but the Dragons needed to win by well over forty to alter their league position.

As storm Eunice continued to wreak havoc across the kingdom a hoard of hardy souls braved the gales and occasional snowstorm and descended on the DW Stadium to see the Wigan Warriors take on a Leeds Rhinos side who had battled the elements to cross the Pennines in search of their first win of the campaign.

The visitors were forced into five changes from last weeks side who suffered late defeat at the hands of Warrington with Bentley, Myler, Fusitu´a, Dwyer and Martin all missing from a side which included Blake Austin, Liam Tindall and Morgan Gannon.

The only change for Matt Peet´s Warriors side was the replacement of the injured Iain Thornley as they looked for two on the bounce at the start of the 2022 season.