Leeds Rhinos U18s 58 St Helens U18s 0

An 11 try performance saw Leeds Rhinos Under-18s bounce back to winning ways in style as Chev Walker’s side produced a brilliant attacking and defensive display to defeat St Helens 58-0 at Stanningley.

From the kickoff, Leeds were a team on a mission as the young Rhinos put  a week of hard work on the training ground following their defeat to Hull KR into practise against a Saints side, who never found their feet in the contest. Battling through the opening exchanges, during which Oscar Knox had the best chance for points with a bullocking drive for the line, the Rhinos countered by setting Alfie Steel free off the back of an offload by Harvey Butterworth. With just the full back to beat, Steel showed great composure to round Jack Campbell and finish under the posts for his first Academy try.

With the advantage of the scoreboard, there was nothing to stop Walker’s side as they started to amass an inevitably unassailable lead. An attempted 40/20 kick from Tyler McGann fell short of reaching the required distance and Leeds made them pay as confident carries by Sonny Hetherington, Jacob Tooala and Zak Lloyd set up the home side in range again, and Tom Richardson was able to finish in the corner to get his eighth try of the year.

Wade White kept the scoreboard ticking over as straight from the restart, Tooala was allowed to break free of the Saints defence and White followed up in support to finish a spectacular effort as the score read 16-0 to the Rhinos.

Saints had opportunities to respond as the half wore on, but Knox was denied again by a knock on before a promising break by Luke Brighouse saw Kai Irvine intervene to stop the centre’s kick ahead in its tracks. To their opponent’s frustrations, Leeds kept converting their chances as a hold down penalty led to Steel offloading a pass away close to the line for Marchant to dive over on the half hour mark.

The game almost went away from the visitors when referee Lucas Seal penalised Declan Lyon for a late shot on Lloyd, but fortunately for the Saints substitute, he wasn’t shown a card that would have temporarily taken them down to 12 players. Instead, Leeds increased their advantage as Tooala showed great strength to walk through the challenge of Riley Heath and Campbell to get the ball to the line.

Hardy and Connor Lawrie both teased more tries for the home side, whilst Saints’ night continued to be frustrating as James Moss was lost at the end of the half for a HIA assessment. Coming out for the second period, normal service resumed as Lawrie showed good footwork to take Butterworth’s pass and drive over the line to extend the score to 34-0 after 50 minutes.

With the result all but defined, it didn’t stop the Rhinos probing for more points as they stuck to the plan laid out during the week. Even though Bailey Hardy was put on report for dangerous contact with opposite winger Cavell Kibula as the winger went up to take a last tackle kick, the other Hardy brother Jacob managed to get his first try since the win over Hull FC back in May as he combined with Irvine to drive through James Patterson and ground the ball.

No sooner had he got one try, Hardy was handed a second score – this time taking a wonderful pass from Marchant after Steel had set the Rhinos up on Saints’ line once again.

Closing in on the half-century and with four out of five outside backs as try scorers, all it left was for Hetherington to add his name to the list of scorers. Saints’ pivots Heath, McGann and Campbell tried to stretch the Leeds defence on the edge, but as Bobby Tyerman was unable to take Campbell’s pass, Hetherington was there to sweep up the loose ball and race away to score.

Tooala’s second try of the night was well deserved for the centre’s efforts carrying out of yardage and defending his edge valiantly, but no one at Stanningley was ready to see his final act of the game. With a tiring St Helens defence doing enough to keep White out at one side of the field, a switch across the field found Tooala, who produced a miracle offload away for Hetherington to crown the result with the best try of the night. Although Marchant couldn’t convert, it didn’t take away from a great night as the young Rhinos got back to winning ways with a 58-0 final score.

Teams

Rhinos

1. Wade White, 2. Tom Richardson, 3. Jacob Hardy, 4. Jacob Tooala, 5. Sonny Hetherington, 6. Seth Marchant, 7. Kai Irvine, 8. Evan Jones, 9. Harvey Butterworth, 10. Dacx Jones-Buchanan, 11. Alfie Steel, 12. Will Wilkinson, 13. Zak Lloyd

Subs: 14. Noah Lunn, 15. Hughie Tinkler, 16. Bailey Hardy, 17. Connor Lawrie  (18th Man – Theo Roberts)

Tries: Steel (10), Richardson (15), White (18), Marchant (30), Tooala (33, 73), Lawrie (47), J.Hardy (59, 65), Hetherington (69,78)

Goals: Marchant 7/11]

Saints

14. Jack Campbell, 2 Cavell Kibula, 3. Bobby Tyerman, 4. Luke Brighouse, 5. Noah Carter, 6. Tyler McGann, 7. Riley Heath-Ellison, 8. Toby Bottell, 9. James Patterson, 10. Oscar Knox, 11 James Moss, 12. Tyler Mills, 13. Chris Matagi

Subs: 24. Declan Lyon, 15. Dan Kent, 16. Callum Holmes, 17. Ollie Roby (18^th Man: Leon Davies)