Newcastle Thunder U18 0 Leeds Rhinos U18 84

Leeds Rhinos Under-18s started the defence of their Academy Championship title with a dominant 84-0 won over Newcastle Thunder Under-18s at Kingston Park.

After the young Rhinos had their first game postponed due to the snow, Tony Smith's side got out of the blocks quickly to score nine tries in the first half.

Kyden Frater, who finished last season with the decisive try in the Grand Final, showed great speed from a well-designed scrum play to score the game's opening try, before a break from Neil Tchamambe set up Riley Lumb for this first try of the afternoon.

Tchamambe continued the try scoring a quick fire double. The winger was in the right position to walk onto a chip kick towards the corner from Tayler Stephenson, before a break from the half back and Lumb combined to open up space for Tchamambe to dive over.

Newcastle tried their best to create a response but Leeds turned defence quickly into attack to get a fifth score. Frater was proving a handful going forward and as the winger made a half break, he had Shane Tuohey on his shoulder for the former Stanningley player to sprint away and score.

Lumb's second kept the Rhinos' record of scoring a point a minute up; the full back benefitting from a break from Harry Taylor to get his second of the game. Soon after, Thunder were behind their own goal line again as Frater found a space on the edge again to race free and touch down.

With half time looming, substitute Zach McSwiney jumped straight into the action as he took an offload from Tobias Gibson well to score. With the half time hooter looming, the young Rhinos had one last trick play up their sleeves. Jack Smith and Mason Corbett combined to get Leeds' attack rolling and Lumb played the supporting role brilliantly again to see the full back score his hat trick try. Smith converted seven tries in the first half to make the score 50-0.

Although Leeds' attack didn't score as many points in the second half, they were able to keep the home side scoreless nevertheless.

Taylor got the Rhinos back on the score board, although Newcastle started the half the stronger of the two sides. His new wing partner Dylan Proud was quick to start his scoring in the second 40 minutes too as he strolled in for a score after good work from the Leeds spine.

Although Smith's conversion attempts came up short, the centre made up for his missed efforts with a try of his own. Leo Aliyu and Gibson had worked well off the bench and as Littlewood was unlucky not to put Tchamambe over, Corbett was clever from the play of the ball and gave it to Smith, who managed to force himself through a hole to take Leeds' lead beyond 60 points.

Following another Newcastle attack, Proud stretched his legs to finish a ranging effort in the corner, plus Corbett also got over the try line on his first outing for Smith.

As Smith started to rotate his players around the field, Tuohey was allowed to score a brilliant solo try from dummy half. Spotting a slow set of markers, he was quick to get up to speed and put himself out of sight for his second try of the game.

To round off proceedings, Ben Littlewood's brace took the Rhinos over the 80 point margin. Catching the Thunder defence short on numbers both times, good work from the Rhinos halves saw the visitors push down the short side both times and Littlewood ran strong lines to get his first tries of the year. Although Lumb and Frater couldn't add to their individual point hauls, the Rhinos still set a strong foundation with a 84-0 result.