By Guy Harvey

Mark Butterill was back in the hot seat after completing his duties at Leeds Beckett, with Martin Wood and Richard Leese taking the reigns for the victory over Hull FC. A game which saw the young Rhinos produce a fantastic second half fight back to win their opening fixture, an eighty-minute performance was needed especially with local rivals Castleford Tigers coming to AMT Headingley stadium.

Castleford were first to score after charging down a quick from Leeds on the last tackle the scramble saw Leeds being penalised for being offside. With possession in Leeds’ third of the field, Castleford passed the ball out to the right flank finding Jack Pallister, with work to do but still managed to find a way to score in the corner. Leeds responded well and started to control the game, which led to them scoring next when a high kick on last tackle was too difficult to take for Castleford, however Zak Lloyd would react quickly to take possession and with just the sole Castleford defender to beat, Cobi Ellis would be in support to take the pass and score. Both sides failed with their conversion attempts making it four all with twelve minutes on the clock.

Both sides then began what would be a tough patch for both teams, with only a few completed sets from both, through unforced errors making the game a scruffy affair until on the twenty-minute mark Zak Lloyd would take a grip of the game for his side charging through the middle a breaking the line on halfway only to be tackled just shy of the Castleford try line. The ball was sent left to Harvey Butterworth who instinctively came back to middle only to offload in the tackle back to Lloyd for him to dive over for try.

This is where Leeds really began to dominate the game, forcing a goal line drop out and on the next set Harvey Butterworth crashed over going straight from dummy half scoring your typical hookers try. Leeds would score again minutes later after a few error-laden sets again, this time Cobi Ellis breaking Castleford’s line racing through from halfway, but he would need support playing to the right edge and finding Jacob Hardy scoring the try as he was taken down in the tackle. Hardy would double his try tally for the night moments later when hooker Butterworth was quickly out from the play the ball leaving both markers out of the game, finding the space behind but with just the full back to beat Hardy would be in support and race the final thirty metres unchallenged to score under the posts.

Leeds would knock on from the kick off giving Castleford a great opportunity to reduce the deficit before half time, but the young Rhinos would be impenetrable and with seconds left in the half would score again, this time finding winger Tom Richardson on the right edge with an overlap, he would race eighty metres evading a couple would be tacklers to score under the posts making another easy conversion for Hardy to send Leeds in to the break leading 32-4.

The second half saw a more determined Castleford side back on the field, although it would be Leeds that scored first after an opening fifteen minutes again with many errors from both sides. Leeds making a half break down the middle finding Robin Smith stepping the Tigers full back and crashing over under the posts. But again, what would probably the story of the game, error after error from both teams made for an unconvincing second half from both teams. But with ten minutes left on the clock, Logan Staveley-Carr crashed over to score after taking the inside pass from debutant Seth Marchant fooling the Castleford defence and with another Hardy conversion the score was 44-10.

With only three minutes left to play you would have been forgiven if you thought that was the end of the night, but Castleford went on to possibly play the best three minutes, they had played all evening. Firstly, while on half way the Castleford half back spotted an overlap for his side down the left flank, finding winger Franki Jackson-Bedford he managed to race through and finally find centre partner Sean Coughlan in support to score on the left edge. But with Leeds looking at closing out the game, eagerness would see them caught offside at the kick off allowing Castleford one more opportunity and they certainly took when they noticed that the Leeds defence had tightened up in an almost carbon copy of Coughlan’s try, they played the ball out to the left however this time winger Jackson-Bedford wouldn’t need support and dive in the corner but with the conversion missed would see the final score end at 44-20.

With Wakefield Trinity the next up for the Rhinos Scholarship side back at AMT Headingley, Butterill and his staff will have plenty to work on back in training at Kirkstall.

Leeds Rhinos Scholarship

• Will Hunter
  
• Tom Richardson
  
• Jacob Tooala
  
• Sonny Hetherington
  
• Sam Oldroyd
  
• Jacob Hardy
  
• Seth Marchan
  
• Dacx Jones-Buchanan
  
• Harvey Butterworth
  
• Will Wilkinson
  
• Zak Lloyd
  
• Cobi Ellis
  
• Brennan Townend
  
• Noah Lunn
  
• Robin Smith
  
• Jack Mears
  
• Alfie Steel
  
• Daniel Shaw
  
• Daniel Stelfox
  
• Logan Staveley-Carr
  

Castleford Tigers Scholarship

• Josh Sundin
  
• Jack Pallister
  
• Tye Welch
  
• Sean Coughlan
  
• Franki Jackson-Bedford
  
• Noah Lazenby
  
• Sonny Wall
  
• Will Gardner
  
• Layton Whitehead
  
• Jay Dawson
  
• Jack Egley
  
• Jack O’Marr
  
• Louie Adamson
  
• Mackenzie Kesik
• Jayden Pollitt
  
• Noah Whittingham
  
• Harrison Simpson
  
• Zach McGowan