Leeds Rhinos strengthened their grip on a Play Off place with an 18-12 win over Huddersfield Giants at Emerald Headingley; Ash Handley, Richie Myler and Rob Lui scoring the tries.

The match saw club legend Rob Burrow MBE attend as the guest of honour as he launched his new book ‘Too Many Reasons To Live’ and along with his family, he addressed the crowd pre match.

Within the opening minutes, the Giants looked to have opened Leeds up off the back of a penalty against the home side. Close to the Rhinos’ try line, the ball was moved swiftly out but Sam Wood couldn’t finish in the corner. The Rhinos also had their best chance of the early stages off the back of Huddersfield turning the ball  over on the Leeds try line. A penalty helped the home side further downfield and a break by Jarrod O’Connor set the youngster away into the backfield. As the loose forward was brought down by Ashton Golding, on the next play Kruise Leeming dropped the ball, turning possession back over.

It wasn’t long though before Leeds did make the visitors pay through captain Handley. Coming away from their own line, a break by Callum McLelland saw the half back streak away and as he faced off with Golding, McLelland timed his pass perfectly to let Handley score in the corner.

Minutes later, the Giants replied. Cogger’s kick on the fifth tackle took a lucky bounce off Handley’s foot to give Huddersfield possession close to the 20 metre line. A nice one-two pass between Nathan Peats and Owen Trout looked to catch the Leeds defence out as Peats then spun the ball wide. Coming off the hands of Handley, the referee Ben Thaler wiped the tackle count but young half back Will Pryce was there to immediately pick up the loose ball and score in the corner to level the score.

The Giants almost scored back to back tries as Senior rounded Handley to break away but as Cogger tried to follow the winger’s kick forward, he was beaten to the ball and it came off a Huddersfield player in the process of the half back touching the ball down.

Just before the end of the half, Leeds re-took the lead once again. The Giants had spent a spell with the ball but it was broken down as Luke Yates knocked on and the home side went straight on the attack. A kick through by Rob Lui looked harmless at first but as Sam Walters chased Senior towards the try line, the Huddersfield winger fell short of the line and Richie Myler came out of nowhere to get his hand to the ball first. Handley converted to make the half time score 10-4.

An early error from Huddersfield saw Senior loose the ball in the air from a high bomb by Lui. Although Luke Briscoe tried to squeeze in the corner from the free play, even when the count was wiped back to one Leeds couldn’t make their chance count as Handley took a wide pass over the sideline.

To keep the scoreboard ticking over, Harry Newman stepped up to convert two penalties – the first for an offside call against the Giants and the second for an obstruction of Lui – to edge Leeds’ lead to ten points with over 20 minutes left to play.

For the third match running, Lui made sure his name was on the scoresheet as the half back registered his fourth try of the season. A short break by Tom Briscoe, who had moved out onto the winger as Handley had gone off the field, got Leeds well out of danger. Moving downfield to sit on the Giants’ try line, a great move across the line by Leeming caught Huddersfield’s defenders napping and the Leeds hooker produced the perfect ball to put Lui clean through to score.

Leeds were forced to complete the last ten minutes with twelve men as Zane Tetevano was sent to the sin bin for a late hit. Soon-after Sam Wood closed the scoreline to ten points as he finished off a wide passing move from the Giants’ spine, even though he had to beat a tackle from Tom Briscoe. Pryce missed to conversion to leave the score at 18-8. Owen Trout also scored from a kick down field in the final minute but the damage was already done by the home side; the final score 18-12.