St Helens Women 34 Leeds Rhinos Women 22

Leeds Rhinos Women earned a big win on the road against St Helens to keep alive their hopes of a second place finish with one game remaining in the regular season.

It was the first time the teams had met since the Challenge Cup Final less than a month ago and the Rhinos were hoping to claim their first win of the season against the team in second place.

Leeds made a positive start with a brilliant break from Hanna Butcher from her own half but Saints dealt with the initial threat however, they were then forced to put the ball dead in goal on the last tackle.

St Helens took the lead after 10 minutes when Faye Gaskin put Shona Hoyle through a gap and the second rower rounded Tash Gaines before racing clear under the posts, despite the efforts of the chasing Hanna Butcher and Caitlin Casey.

Ten minutes later after a brilliant break from Keara Bennett got the Rhinos on the front foot the ball was spread out to Sophie Robinson who broke the line and dived over next to the posts.  Sam Hulme added the extras to bring the game level at 6-6.

After another ten minutes with the score line locked, St Helens edged ahead with a great team try.  Georgia Sutherland and Katie Mottershead combined to send Jodie Cunningham away and the captain found Eboni Partington who races down the left edge away from her the chasing Rhinos' defence to cut back inside and score.  Once again Taylor landed the conversion.

Saints piled on the pressure as the half drew to a close and a brilliant last ditch tackle from Tara Moxon stopped them from crossing for a try, however the danger wasn’t over and Leeds once again conceded.  After Faye Gaskin chased a loose ball, it was ruled that she had been pulled back in her attempts to get to the ball and the referee awarded a penalty try.  There was no mistake from Amy Taylor with the conversion in front of the posts to make it 18-6 at the break.

Leeds needed a big start to the second half and within three minutes they had made their mark when Beth Lockwood got on the scoreboard. After plenty of pressure on the Saints line, Lockwood was able to free an arm in the tackle and stretch out to get the ball over across the line.  Hulme’s conversion brought her team to within six points.

Saints hit back on 51 minutes when Partington collected Taylor’s high kick and then linked up with Emily Rudge who cut back inside for her team’s fourth try.  Taylor’s conversion attempt this time hit the posts.

Leeds had plenty of fight left in them and ultimately won the energy battle against the hosts.  The next breakthrough for Leeds came after Zoe Hornby was able to take advantage of some poor St Helens defence to cut through and power upfield for a try under the posts.  Hulme with her third kick from three attempts made the scores even again at 22-22.

Four minutes later Tasha Gaines marked her 50^th appearance for the club with a try.  The full back spotted the gap in the Saints' defence and sprinted clear for the try.  For the first time in the game Hulme was off target with the conversion.

Leeds then took the lead for the first time with a second try from Hornby, who was the first to get her hands on a loose ball under the posts and Hulme’s conversion brought the Rhinos to 28 points with three minutes remaining.

The Rhinos wrapped up the win in the final minute when Northrop took advantage of a fumbled Saints ball and scooped up the loose ball for the team’s sixth try of the game.  Once again Hulme landed the kick to make it 22-34.

Leeds now take on Wigan in their final home game of the regular season at Headingley on 9th September as part of a double header of rugby, kicking off at 12.15pm.  Tickets on sale at tickets.therhinos.co.uk