Sold out over a week ago, the biggest game in Super League promises to be a belter, the game already had all the ingredients: A full house; JP captaining the Rhinos; Welsh money grabber captaining the Bulls; McKenna and Bai returning; the Rhinos injury problems and now we hear that Bradford have given Wigan permission to speak to Brian Noble.


Without Kevin Sinfield this is going to be a tough game for us but we do have cover and I expect Gareth Ellis to take over at loose forward and do a good job.
Having said, that we have nobody with Sinfield’s range of kicking skills and we use the long game a lot against Bradford particularly against the “Volcano”. McGuire and mainly Burrow are going to have to be at their best in that department.


Also out of the 17 are Smith, Diskin and O’Neill. Danny Williams and Shane Millard will replace the first two, O’Neill is not yet ready to start in a game such as this.


JJB comes back into the squad and should make the 17, Ashley Gibson will probably be the man to miss out. The Bulls are missing just Paul Johnson through injury.


This again looks likely to be a close game, with the Bulls coming off a poor display against Warrington last week, they are likely to be fired up but if we can cover Sinfield's kicking game we can win it.


The Bulls have 10 points start on the coupon which I would take. They will not win the game though, I take the Rhinos by 8 again to take the two points and temporary league leadership.


Prediction: Leeds 22 v Bulls 14


Come on Leeds!!!

What a game!! 2 points for us and with them some sort of revenge for last years cup final defeat. Chev Walker was back in the starting 13 and Ian Kirke was the unlucky one missing the final 17.
Coachless Hull who had just been knocked back by Steve McNamara at least had Richard Swain returning started the stronger and went in front within 2 minutes, Gareth Raynor scoring a converted try.

After 8 minutes we were back in it but it came after a poor McGuire kick took a fortuitous bounce then went through 3 pairs of hands and back to McGuire who dived over, converted 6-6.
Five minutes later Hull took advantage of a Rhinos knock on and from the scrum the ball reached Yeaman who waltzed round Walker, 10-6. From the kick off Sinfield put the ball straight out on the full and then within minutes badly injured his leg and ankle, in the same play Lee Smith twisted his ankle, neither was to play any further part in this game.

On 20 minutes Sid Domic went in for a very debatable try, Chris Chester clearly knocked the ball forward but the video ref gave it, 16-6 after the conversion, it was not looking good, step forward Danny McGuire, JP flicked the ball out in the tackle and McGuire did the rest outpacing the defence to score, Burrow converted 16-12.
Hull kept going and before the break scored again through Raynor, unconverted.

HT 20-12
Our kicking had to improve in the second half and we needed a good start which we got courtesy of Ewan Dowes who dropped the ball near his own line, Burrow converted 20-18.

Ten minutes later Bailey was inexplicably penalized for stripping the ball when one on one, it could have been costly as within 2 minutes Horne had scored a converted try to make it 26-18.
We again kept in the game when after 55 Walker went over with 4 tacklers hanging from him, Burrow again converted 26-24, 10 minutes later we were in front for the first time in the game, Shane Millard reacted first to McGuire’s grubber kick and went in under the sticks, Burrow converted 26-30 but there were still 15 minutes left. Within 5 minutes it looked like we had sealed it when Ali strolled in, no conversion but we had an 8 point lead 26-34.

With 2 minutes to go McGuire capped a great performance by preventing Brough grounding the ball over the line and preventing a very tense finish, game over.
We only had one sub for the whole of the second half after Matt Diskin also went off injured but we finished the stronger.

FT 26-34
Bulls next up but how many men will we have standing?

Super League Round 8 – Friday 7th April 8.00pm KC Stadium


This for me is our biggest test of the season so far; these lot still cannot get over the fact that we are the biggest club in world rugby and always will be.The fact that they have no coach at the moment should make no difference, they will be up for the game and we have to hit them hard early on.


I say this is the biggest test of the season so far because most Rhinos I know had, due to the low key preparation pre-season, written off the two points from the Saints match before we played them, now we are in much better form.
We should see the return of Chev Walker, Shane Millard and Willie Poaching as all are named in the 18; Nick Scruton should be the one to miss the final cut giving Ian Kirke another opportunity to show what he can do.


Hull’s final 18 does not include King or Briscoe who have wimped out but Richard Swain is back in the squad and should start after recovering from injury, we should be targeting him.


The Rhinos are quite rightly favourites with the bookies but Hull are only given 8 start, I will be lumping on the Rhinos at that, I can only see one winner.


Prediction: Hull 12 Leeds 28


Come on Leeds!!!!!

Challenge Cup 4th Round


After beating this opposition convincingly on the previous 2 visits here, the weather as much as Leigh themselves made sure that a big win was not on the cards this time.

It took almost 20 minutes of this cup tie for The Rhinos to register their first points and it was Kevin Sinfield who went under the sticks after good work by Matt Diskin, conversion and 0-6 Rhinos.

We scored at regular intervals then throughout the first half with Lee Smith going in followed by Keith Senior after excellent work by Ali with the final try of the half being scored by Gareth Ellis, Smith’s was the only try not converted leaving the score at half time 0-22, the game was over as a contest.


HT 0-22


Leeds were on the scoreboard again within 2 minutes of the re-start with Smith scoring his second of the game, unconverted, then Ashley Gibson became the fourth Rhinos player this season to score a try on his full debut which when converted made the score 0-32.


The Centurions finally got on the scoreboard after an hour of the game with the Rhinos not making quite as much of an effort to nil the opposition as they had in the previous SL game.
The Rhinos best try of the game came on 71 minutes when they managed to keep the ball alive numerous times before Mathers went in, 6-36.


Leigh scored the final points of the game just as Leeds were looking the finish Leigh off, Manu picked up a loose pass and sprinted 90 metres to touch down.


FT 12-36



We are in the hat for the next round and Tony Smith will be happy to come away from this one with no injuries, it’s great this summer rugby.

Seven games into SL XI and that was definitely our most cohesive performance of the season so far. We were always going to beat a severely depleted Harlequins but the manner in which we did it was impressive.



Chev Walker failed a late fitness test giving Ian Kirke promotion to the starting 13 as Gareth Ellis moved to right centre and after 10 minutes of almost constant pressure from the Rhinos the first try was scored, Peacock offloaded to Mathers who broke the line drew the full back and released Danny McGuire who went under the sticks, 0-6.

2 minutes later McGuire was in again, Sinfield converting to make it 0-12. It was already a case of how many we could get.
It did though take a further 12 minutes before we scored again and what a try, McGuire broke the line and released Lee Smith who drew the cover to send Rob Burrow who also went under the sticks 0-18 with the conversion.

Try number 4 was only 2 minutes in coming and it again involved Smith who took a pass from Ali who sent in McGuire for his hat trick, conversion meant 0-24. The Rhinos scored again 3 minutes later and again it was McGuire for his fourth try in 20 minutes, Converted 0-30.
It was a point a minute just about when Poaching went in this time with Burrow converting.


HT 0-36


Early in the second half Harlequins had their only real chance of the game but their winger had put his foot in touch before he had chance to put the ball down for the 4 points, the try was chalked off.

Ten minutes in to the second half and Smith intercepted a Luke Dorn pass then sprinted half the length of the pitch to score under the posts, Conversion meant 0-42, Ali was next to go over on 70 minutes again converted 0-48 and then 2 minutes after that Chris Feather deservedly went over again, converted, 0-54.
The final try was a league collectors item as we won a scrum against the head, moments later McGuire fed Keith Senior who went over, 0-60, the icing on the cake came when after Senior had been sin binned with just a couple of minutes to go the Rhinos managed to keep Harlequins out to zero them.



FT 0-60