Leeds Rhinos celebrated Cameron Smith’s Testimonial in style as eight tries, including one from Smith himself, saw the Rhinos overcome Bradford Bulls 46-16 at AMT Headingley.

After a tense first half saw both sides exchange blows in a closely fought 40 minutes, a second half hat trick from Brodie Croft proved to be the gamebreaker the home side needed. Smith, Presley Cassell, Ethan O’Neill and two tries from Ash Handley also got Leeds over the line.

For his side’s final run out before the season kicks off with the Betfred Challenge Cup in a fortnight’s time, Head Coach Brad Arthur named the strongest possible lineup. Only Cooper Jenkins, Tom Holroyd, Chris Hankinson and Ethan O’Neill remained in the starting 13 from the win on Boxing Day against Wakefield as Man of Steel Jake Connor, electric full back Lachie Miller and testimonial man Cameron Smith were amongst the personnel given the opportunity to get minutes under their belts.

The bench was strong too, led by Smith’s good friend Mikolaj Oledzki, Jarrod O’Connor and Kallum Watkins. Oscar Brown, Harley Thomas and Jacob Stead featured in their third pre-season game after playing in Brad Singleton’s Testimonial against Castleford a week ago.

It took 20 minutes for the game to get its first points, despite the Rhinos having the best of the early chances. After shrugging off early penalties and pressure from the Bulls, Chris Hankinson managed to work space on the edge to power for the line, but lost the ball as he reached out to plant it down on the ten-minute mark.

Ash Handley came to Leeds’ rescue at the end of the games’ first quarter as the centre benefitted from a mistake from the visitors. As Jake Connor pumped a ball high for Jayden Okunbor, the Bradford winger wasn’t able to hold on to the ball under pressure from Ethan O’Neill and Riley Lumb was quick to react and feed Handley in the corner.

Bradford quickly quietened the Rhinos fans down as Joe Keyes found a seam in the Leeds defence to race away and beat Lachie Miller to the try line. Unfazed by their opponent’s reaction, the Rhinos forced their way downfield and came away with points thanks again to Handley. Danny Levi’s quick dart out of dummy half was supported by Presley Cassell to kickstart the Leeds attack, and clever thinking from Connor saw the half back kick wide to connect with Handley for a well-worked second score.

More pressure on the Bradford try line saw the home side grab an insurance score in the dying moments of the half; new signing Ethan O’Neill crashing onto a Miller pass to open up a ten point lead. An error from the restart from Ryan Hall invited the Bulls one final attack, and they took their opportunity as Ethan Ryan beat Hall round the outside to dive in the corner. Luke Hooley converted from the touchline to make the score 16-12 to Leeds at the break.

The Rhinos didn’t take long to get back into the groove for the second half as Croft and Connor combined for a sensational score. Substitute Ned McCormack started the move with a break down the touchline that set the Rhinos up, before Connor produced a remarkable reverse pass to wrong-foot the Bulls defence and put Croft in for the try.

To their credit, the Bulls continued to ask questions of the Leeds defence and backed Arthur’s side back up on their own try line for a prolonged period following the Croft score. Finally the pressure broke as Ryan acrobatically got the ball down in the corner for the away side’s third of the game, making the score 22-16.

The majority of the contest had been closely fought up to the hour mark, but Leeds began to pull away with a flurry of tries to confirm their second pre-season trial win.

Croft was the man to get the Rhinos back on track as the half back pulled a second try out of the bag. Speeding onto a kick ahead from Miller, he got the ball down just before it went over the dead ball line to open up the score to eight points. Five minutes later, his hat trick was complete as a driving run back on the angle cut the Bulls defence in two. Connor was good from the kicking tee to make the score 34-16 heading into the closing stages.

Even with both sides rolling their benches onto the field, as expected with pre-season clashes, the Rhinos maintained their rhythm and proved too much for Kurt Haggerty’s Bulls to handle. After Kallum Watkins forced a goal line drop out as the England international almost connected with a Connor kick, Cooper Jenkins wriggled out of Bradford’s grasp and offloaded for Smith to mark his testimonial with a try.  He added the conversion too – his first goal attempt since 2019.

One last hurrah for the home side saw Presley Cassell latch onto a break from George Brown as the Rhinos crowned a resounding 46-16 result in their final run out before the start of the season.

Teams

Rhinos

1. Lachie Miller, 14. Chris Hankinson, 3. Harry Newman, 4. Ash Handley, 5. Ryan Hall, 6. Brodie Croft, 7. Jake Connor, 10. Tom Holroyd, 23. Danny Levi, 15. Cooper Jenkins, 16. Ethan O’Neill, 12. James McDonnell, 17. Cameron Smith

Subs: 8. Mikolaj Oledzki, 9. Jarrod O’Connor, 11. Kallum Watkins, 18. Max Simpson, 20. Presley Cassell, 22. Riley Lumb, 24. Ned McCormack, 26. Tom Nicholson-Watton, 27. Harley Thomas, 28. George Brown, 29. Oscar Brown, 30. Jacob Stead

Tries: Handley (20, 30), O’Neill (36), Croft (41, 58, 63), Smith (69), Cassell (74)

Goals: Connor 5/6, Smith 2/2

Bulls

22. Luke Hooley, 2. Jayden Okunbor, 23. Connor Wynne, 4. Waqa Blake, 5. Ethan Ryan, 6. Jayden Nikorima, 18. Joe Keyes, 15. Eribe Doro, 14. Mitch Souter, 10. Loghan Lewis, 11. Dan Russell, 30. Leon Ruan, 25. Eliot Peposhi

Subs: 1. Caleb Aekins, 3. Esan Marsters 20. Brandon Douglas, 21. Sam Hallas,26. Ronan Michael, 28. Jamie Gill

Tries: Keyes (23), Ryan (39, 53)

Goals: Hooley 2/2, Okunbor 0/1