Lee Smith returns for The Rhinos this evening having missed the last two games through injury, he will of course replace Danny Williams in what is likely our only change to the starting 13.


Half back teenager Jordan Tansey (another local boy) should make the 17 as I hope does Ian Kirke, he looks very promising to me.
Les Catalans will start new boy Mick Dobson who only arrived this week as cover for Stacey Jones who will be a big loss for the Les’s.

Should be excellent conditions in the South of France tonight and if so any hard ground should suit our half backs who in my opinion do not suit or indeed like the soft going.
It will not be as easy as it was last week against Cas though the bookies do not see it that way, they give the Catalans 30 points start.


I predict a fairly comfortable win for the Rhinos with Tansey scoring on his debut – well everybody else is!!


Prediction: Catalans 20 v Rhinos 48

After the disappointment of Friday night (less said the better) Headingley was packed for the visit of the Tigers, not because they were desperate to see the visitors, more in anticipation of a try fest - the majority of the crowd were not disappointed.


On this showing Cas are guaranteed an immediate return from whence they came and the only surprise was that the Rhinos did not manage to continue their point a minte rugby in the second half as they had in the first.

Lee Smith was the man to miss the final cut meaning Danny Williams got another chance to impress and add to his try tally.
Rob Burrow started the scoring on 4 minutes and save for a 15 minute period midway through the first half when Cas scored 8 points without reply and when down to 12 men at that, we carried on scoring at regular intervals throughout the game, Sinfield converted Burrows try as he would every other try scored during the game and we were off 6-0.

The second score was made by Burrow who cleverly sent Poaching away into the corner, Sinfield converted 12-0.


After Cas’s purple patch it was 12-8 but for the rest of the game the scorer was finding it difficult to keep up with the Leeds players.


On 26, Chev Walker ran 90 metres to score under the sticks after Cas had tried to keep the ball alive on the last tackle, that was it.
On 30, Ian Kirke scored his debut try with his first touch.

On 33, Burrow dummied and went over again and before the break there were 2 further tries for Walker, giving him a 14 minute hat-trick.
HT 42-8


On 46, it was McGuire’s turn but then Cas managed to get on the board for the last time after Senior dropped the ball, 48-14 but it was not long before we were in again, this time Mathers went over unopposed.

By the 67th minute Cas were definitely feeling the pace as acting half back went missing at a Cas play the ball in their own 20, 10 seconds later Ali went over to make it 60-14, the scoring was completed when Bailey ran 40 metres to make the final score.
FT 66-14


It was easy and not because we were that great, if we had have been we would have got 100 plus, Cas were poor and look like a team going straight back down.

The game was called off just 45 minutes before the kick of due to a small part of the pitch being frozen and therefore too dangerous to play on it will now be played on:
Sunday 5th March at 3.00pm

All tickets purchased for the Friday game are valid for Sunday when we will still put 50 points past them.


P.S. I would like to take back my prediction that Hull will finish above the Rhinos this season, things are not right behind the scenes there and after last night’s performance I think they will struggle to make the top 5.

The Southstand is already sold and with Cas bringing a few for what is their cup final, this should be the first full house of the season for what is the ideal chance to get back to winning ways and win BIG.


Tony Smith has named his 18 for the game and surprisingly left out Jamie Jones Buchanan, presumably rested, Nick Scruton also misses out, dropped.
Lee Smith is back and likely to start meaning Danny Williams who is in the 18 could be the man who misses the final cut.

Cas have left out Danny Ward who has a slight injury but either way they should be no match for the Rhinos who should score more points in this game than we have in the previous three.
If we can keep them quiet for the first quarter then I expect us to run away with it.


Prediction: Rhinos 50 v Cas 18

It was always going to be tough going to KR, Saints are not favourites to win everything this year for no reason.


There was a major shock in the Leeds line up when it was announced that Gareth Ellis was not in the Leeds 17 and had been replaced in the starting 13 by JJB, that as well as the inclusion of Danny Williams on the left wing for the injured Lee Smith were the Rhinos first 2 changes of the season, both replacements in my opinion went on to justify their inclusion. The Saints were at full strength but it was the Rhinos who started the better and after some hard hits early on by both sides we almost went in front, an excellent Sinfield kick through was chased and gathered by Williams and he went over but referee Klein went to the video ref and the try was ruled out, Williams being a yard offside. Ten minutes later Williams got the debut try he deserved this time from a grubber kick by Mathers, there was no doubt this time and we were value for it, Sinfield failed to convert so it remained 0-4 Leeds.
Shortly after the opener Graham who has obviously picked up a few things from Fozzard blatently elbowed Burrow after he had kicked downfield, the Saints player should have walked but ref Klein got it wrong, not for the last time and we made nothing of the resulting penalty.

After that it was all Saints and they finally went over 3 Minutes before HT with a try from Lee Gilmour, converted by Lyon.
HT 6-4

Leeds started the second half brightly but again the Saints began to get on top after Nick Scruton lost the ball on the first tackle. On 53 Klein made the last of a series of 3 errors in quick succession when we were adjudged to have interfered at the play the ball, a simple penalty and 2 points, 8-4 Saints and that was all the help they needed. Five minutes later after another error they swung the ball from right to left and Meli went over, Lyon missed the conversion but it was 12-4 and you sensed that we would not come back from this even though we had 20 minutes in which to do it. Saints scored again on 66 as Long added a drop goal to make it 13-4 and that was it for the scoring.
We defended well for long periods of the game and it was no surprise that there was little left attacking wise in the last quarter.

All in all it was a decent performance and if a couple of decisions had gone our way who knows?
It is one of our most difficult games of the weekly rounds out of the way and 4 points from 3 games which have included visits to Saints and Wigan is not a bad return.

FT 13-4