Champions warm up with a win
Leeds Rhinos warmed up for the World Club Challenge with an 19-10 triumph over Hull KR on Friday night.
By Phil Jackson
Last Updated: 21/02/09 12:06am
Leeds Rhinos warmed up for their World Club Challenge clash against Manly Sea Eagles with a hard-fought 19-10 triumph over Hull KR on Friday night.
Carl Ablett, Ryan Hall and Kallum Watkins got the tries for the champions, who now sit pretty on six points at the top of the early Super League XIV table, but they were made to work hard for the victory.
Shaun Briscoe, filling in as captain for the injured Michael Vella, had given the hosts the lead in the first-half with Michael Dobson kicking the conversion and two penalties.
But ultimately it was not enough for Justin Morgan's men as they lost their opening home match of the season for the first time in 17 years to follow up the point they earned at Odsal in round one.
Competitive
Michael Dobson got the game underway on a miserably wet night at Craven Park, but it was the Rhinos that made the first meaningful impact on the match after Makali Aizue was harshly penalised for playing at Kevin Sinfield's early kick through.
That decision gave the visitors another set of six tackles and the pressure eventually told as Danny McGuire utilised his dummy runner to bamboozle the Rovers defence and send Ablett over for the game's opening try, just five minutes in.
The returning Sinfield missed his conversion attempt, though, and Rovers hit back, with stand-off Paul Cooke the architect, after hooker Matt Diskin - without injured star signing Danny Buderus breathing down his neck - had been penalised.
Cooke's perfect grubber kick caught Leeds' high defensive line off guard and the ball popped up beautifully for Briscoe to gather and touch down under the posts. And Dobson converted to give the hosts a 6-4 lead.
It was to and fro at that stage and but for Luke Donald's handling error when attempting to touch down Sinfield's kick into the in-goal area, Leeds would have had another try. Rovers made good that let-off, though, largely thanks to their deep, quality kicking from Daniel Fitzhenry and Dobson, turning full-back Lee Smith around at every opportunity.
Dobson kicked a penalty to extend Hull KR's advantage accordingly, but they wasted a second opportunity by taking the tap rather than kicking for goal and that decision proved costly.
Only a try-saving tackle from Smith prevented the impressive Kris Welham from scoring a break away try before half-time and then Dobson's penalty just before the interval made it 10-4 after an enthralling opening 40 minutes.
Quality
Leeds made the fastest start to the second-half and were rewarded with a clever try that highlighted their superb ability to keep the ball alive. Sinfield it was whose cross-field kick switched the play to the Rhinos' left flank and Keith Senior kept the ball alive allowing Hall to go over for the game's second converted try.
Rovers had to withstand some persistent pressure on their line thereafter and only some scrambling defence kept them in the game with England centre Senior somehow prevented from touching the ball down for a third try to the champions.
Paul McShane was sin-binned after being caught off-side with 15 minutes remaining and Rovers narrowly failed to capitalise as Dobson's dink through was missed by Hall. Jake Webster touched down, but was adjudged to have knocked on just before.
Peter Fox then followed his Leeds counterpart into the bin for deliberately preventing McGuire playing the ball with Rovers' defence in trouble trying to get back and defend their line. And Sinfield kicked the penalty to give Leeds the lead for the first time.
There was still time for Bailey to run through Welham and feed 17-year-old Watkins for the decisive try, with Sinfield striking a superb angled conversion to make it 18-10 to the champions after Bailey had been carried from the field on a stretcher.
Webster went close to the line in the left hand corner in the dying minutes, but Sinfield rounded off his fine performance with a drop-goal that ensured it would be three wins out of three for the champions.
