Leeds Rhinos kicked off the 2024 Under-18s Academy season with a 32-22 defeat to St Helens Under-18s in what was a competitive outing between the two clubs, despite wet and muddy conditions at Stanningley.

Dax Millington’s tries in both halves, plus scores from Joe Phillips and Harry Taylor kept the Rhinos in the contest, until three second half tries saw the reigning Academy Grand Final champions snatch the win.

1ST HALF

The visitors got the scoring underway in the early stages of the first half as they threatened from kick off. Using a penalty against the Rhinos to their advantage, Ellis Anderson was posted through a gap and looked set to score, only for good scramble defence by the Rhinos to prevent the winger from getting near the try line. Using their half backs to spread the ball wide, Saints exposed space on the opposite side of the field to put Matthew Penketh over to score.

More Saints pressure in the early stages of the match was dealt with well by the Rhinos’ goal line defence and they were given their rewards when Jake Davies lost the ball. Moving into their attacking rhythm, Leeds turned the tide of momentum to give themselves back to back sets and Joe Phillips crashed over to put the sides on level terms.

Saints punished a knock on by Tayler Stephenson from the restart with their second try of the game; Owen Dagnall on the end of a set play straight from the scrum feed. The young Rhinos, unfazed hit back straight away as Fergus McCormack fired a ball over the top for Dax Millington to put down in the corner. An excellent sideline conversion from Harley Thomas made the score 12-8 to Leeds.

The half continued to ebb and flow, with the Rhinos having the majority of the chances. Great play from Stephenson saw the half back make up for his earlier error by posting substitute Jayemm Oladipupo through a hole, but the prop was cut down short of the line.

Marcus Qareqare, also on his Academy debut, looked lively too as he made defenders miss with his footwork and almost burrowed his way to the try line, only to be agonisingly short.

For their efforts, Saints stole a two point half time lead as Oliver Garmston crashed onto a short ball to get through the Leeds defence. George Whitby added the two points to make the half time score 14-12.

2nd HALF

The second 40 minutes got off to a tough start for Leeds as four minutes in, Jake Davies found space on the edge of Leeds’ defence to get over.

An error minutes later from Saints,  who knocked on the play of the ball coming away from their own line, was too inviting for the young Rhinos and Harry Taylor managed to latch onto his own fifth tackle kick to pull the score back to within two points.

The game went away from the home side as back to back tries from the Saints all but ended the contest with 20 minutes remaining. A line break proved fatal as Whitby was there to provide support and score under the posts, before the half back set up Harry Robertson as the Saints man connected with Whitby’s kick through to touch down under the posts. Two conversions took the score to 32-18.

A consolation effort in the closing moments saw Millington grab his second try from another great ball by McCormack but there wasn’t enough time to mount a comeback; the Rhinos losing out 32-22.

Teams

Rhinos U18s

1. Harley Thomas, 2. Dax Millington, 3. Marcus Qareqare, 4. Harry Taylor, 5. Oliver Smart, 6. Fergus McCormack, 7. Tayler Stephenson, 8. Joe Phillips, 9. Mason Corbett, 10. Bobby Hartley, 11. Jacob Stead, 12. Noah Whittingham, 13. Presley Cassell

Subs: 14. Alex Cowley, 15. Joe Butterfield, 16. Jacob Rushforth, 17. Jayemm Oladipupo (18^th Man: Dylan Hutchinson)

Tries: Phillips (13), Millington (19, 78), Taylor (48)

Goals: Thomas 3/4

Saints U18s

1. Louie Roberts, 2. Owen Dagnall, 3. Deacon Swarbrick, 4. Matthew Penketh, 5. Ellis Anderson, 21. Harry Robertson, 7. George Whitby, 8. Daniel Frost, 9. Cole Marsh, 10. Morgan Barraclough-Watson, 11. Oliver Garmston, 12. William Keeley, 13. Jake Davies

Subs: 14. Thomas Humphreys, 15. Oliver Polec, 16. Alfie Tate, 17. Matthew Evans (18^th Man: Kian McGann)

Tries: Penketh (3), Dagnall (20), Garmston (38), Davies (44), Whitby (52), Robertson (55)

Goals: Whitby 4/6