In front of a bumper Emerald Headingley crowd, Leeds Rhinos put together a comprehensive display by beating Salford Red Devils 38-16.

The Rhinos welcomed an unrestricted crowd back to Emerald Headingley for the first time since March 2020 and with Richard Agar’s side coming into the clash off the back of consecutive defeats to Catalans Dragons, the crowd proved the eighteenth man on the field. Agar reeled the changes pre match, giving Callum McLelland and King Vuniyayawa their first starts of the season. Jarrod O’Connor also started at loose forward while Ash Handley and Rhyse Martin returned to the lineup.

On his return to the Headingley turf, Harry Newman opened up the scoring for the home side, despite a shaky start. Salford had threatened through the boot of Tui Lolohea off the back of errors from Leeds but as the Rhinos started to turn the screw in attack, Alex Mellor and Liam Sutcliffe kept the ball alive to release Newman, who scored in the corner.

It was soon back to back scores for the home side. Konrad Hurrell has charged the ball in from kick off and broken a hole in the Salford defence and a play later, Newman tried to release himself again to keep Salford on their toes. Sutcliffe was back at the heart of Leeds’ attack as the half back connected nicely with Ash Handley, who rounded Salford winger Ken Sio and passed inside for the onrushing Kruise Leeming, who rolled his way into the in goal area. Rhyse Martin converted both conversions to give Leeds a 12-0 lead.

A penalty goal from Martin on 24 minutes extended Leeds’ lead further; the second rower going for the two points after a dangerous tackle on Cameron Smith. The points kept coming as Leeming grabbed his second before the break. Salford had dominated possession since going14 points behind but were struggling to penetrate the Rhinos’ line; Hurrell’s strong tackle on Morgan Escare summing up the mood. As Leeds moved downfield, Richie Myler cut his way back infield off a short pass by Callum McLelland and managed to squeeze through the challenge of Lannon and Harvey Livett and offload for Leeming to get over under the posts. Martin converted to take Leeds’ lead to 20 points at the break.

Leeds started the second half without half back Sutcliffe, who sustained an injury in the latter stages of the first period, forcing Agar to move Leeming to half back and introduce Brad Dwyer into the action. Although the Rhinos had most of the possession at the start of the half, Salford ensured they got their first points of the evening off the back of a set restart. With Lolohea and Escare pulling the strings, they created space for Sio to go round Handley and score in the corner.

Matters got worse for the Red Devils as Lolohea and Seb Ikahihifo were both sent to the sin bin for seperate incidents. Now down to eleven, substitute James Donaldson made a great drive for the line and looked to have scored but he knocked the ball on as he attempted to plant the ball down. Livett was denied a try by referee Ben Thaler as the centre was offside from Escare’s kick for the in goal area but for the remainder of the half, it was all in Leeds favour.

A dart out of dummy half by Dwyer released Luke Briscoe through the heart of Salford’s defence and although the substitute was dragged down, as Leeds tried to move across the field, Leeming’s pass was batted down by a Salford player and McLelland picked up the loose ball to score under the posts. The game was soon out of sight as minutes later as King Vuniyayawa showed a burst of speed to break through the attempted tackle of Atkin and continued all the way to the try line for his first Rhinos try. Martin continued his success with the boot, slotting both goals.

On his return from the sin bin, Lolohea followed up a break by Sio to score in the corner for a consolation effort but Leeds cruised towards 40 points as Matt Prior, who had signed a new two year deal with the club that week, bounced through the attempted tackles of two Salford players and managed to get the ball down despite Escare’s best efforts.

Inu added a try in the final moments of the game for Salford, that also saw Myler go to the sin bin, but the damage was already done; the Rhinos walking out 38-16 victors.