It was a tough night for Leeds Rhinos Under-18s as Tony Smith’s side suffered a 34-30 defeat to Huddersfield Giants Under-18s at Stanningley, despite a late fightback.

The visitors were quick to stamp their authority on the game after Leeds were penalised for being offside. Camping themselves on the Leeds line, the Giants quickly moved the ball through the hands of Jack Ward, Leo Ward and Oliver Whitford to get it out to centre Jack Hudson, who beat Jack Johnson and Neil Tchamambe to get the opening score.

After Bailey Fitzgibbon was denied an acrobatic try in the corner by the touch judge, the Giants soon doubled their lead as Kameron Siddique bustled his way under the posts give the away side a 10-0 advantage. That lead was extended too after 20 minutes of play as Hudson broke free and rounded full back Shane Tuohey to reward the Giants for their early onslaught.

Leeds needed a response quickly and finally the young Rhinos clicked. Jack Sinfield made his presence known in his first game back in action as the half-back tried his best to break free of the Giants’ defence. On the next play though it was his half back partner Fergus McCormack that showed great footwork and agility to keep his balance to get the ball over the try line.

Huddersfield had a reply as Matthew Thornton took a short pass from hooker Aahren Scott to beat Sinfield and Tom Stevens over the line,  and Whitford’s third conversion of the game took the score to 22-6 as half time loomed. The Rhinos would grab one more try back before the half expired though; Mason Corbett latching onto a great offload from Tuohey to close the gap to ten points on the score board at the break.

A feisty first half continued into the second period as both sides continued to do battle. Even though the Rhinos came out of the shed with a new-found enthusiasm, the Giants looked like they had sealed the result when Hudson scored his third and fourth tries of the night.

What the spectators at Stanningley didn’t anticipate was a comeback to be mounted by the home side, who scored three tries to set up a tense finish.

Even with the amount of injuries that they had sustained, the young Rhinos showed fight and kick started their revival with centre Harry Taylor. Using a penalty for an illegal lift on Joe Phillips as a spring board, both Sinfield and McCormack timed their passes to perfection to allow the centre to score untouched.

Having seen his team mate McCormack score on his Academy debut, Declan Ementon got in on the act too. The Leeds half back had tried to sneak through a hole on the play before, but a quick pass out of dummy half by Mason Corbett saw his East Leeds team mate Ementon crash over to get the nerves jingling for both sets of supporters.

The sin binning of Matthew Hanley led to McCormack getting his second off the back of a great reverse pass from Sinfield with five minutes remaining, but it was too little too late as the Giants took home the victory.