Leeds Rhinos Reserves returned to winning ways as they ran out 40-20 winners against London Broncos Reserves in the capital. Zach McSwiney marked his Reserves debut with two tries while winger Mackenzie Turner led the scoring with a hat trick.

It wasn’t a great start for the Broncos who kicked the ball out on the full and instantly gave Leeds the ball on the halfway line. Although the visitors came close, a heavy kick from David Gibbons proved too much and London survived. The Rhinos kept pushing and after forcing a drop out, hooker McSwiney used a quick play of the ball by Danny Salkeld to go out of dummy half and touch down. Kai Morgan converted his first kick of the game to make the early score 6-0.

Ten minutes later McSwiney was over again, this time under the posts. The Rhinos had continued to dominate in attack and defence, forcing the Broncos to drop out again as well lose the ball coming away from their own line. An error by Rob Tuliatu proved fatal though as he gave Leeds the ball 30 metres from the try line and with tackles in the bag, McSwiney backed up a drive by Jack Johnson to claim his second of the game.

London responded with back to back tries of their own to make the score level. Firstly Bill Leyland beat Danny Salkeld and Joe Gibbons down the short side to get the home side on the score board, before Rob Oakley charged through a big gap in the Leeds defence. Jenson Binks converted the latter to cut the Rhinos’ lead to two points.

Leeds responded quickly to Oakley’s try by getting one back themselves. After a jinking and jiving run by Shane Tuohey, who was making his debut for the Reserves, the Rhinos managed to pull the ball wide with Morgan, who provided a clinical final pass to send Mackenzie Turner over in the corner.

No sooner had the winger scored his first, he was over for an impressive second. From the restart, Morgan released Joe Gibbons, who carried the ball well before offloading for McSwiney, who in turn passed to Turner. With limited room to work, the winger kicked ahead and used his pace to get in behind the defence and score a highlight solo try. Morgan was unlucky to miss the conversion but Leeds still took a good 20-10 lead into the break.

Like in the first half, London began the second half off with an error as try scorer Bill Leyland was penalised for an incorrect play of the ball. With the try line in sight, Morgan wrong footed the London defence cleverly to break clean through and score from short range. He converted his own try to make Leeds’ lead 16 points.

London had no answer for the Rhinos’ attack, which continued to score points. Next up was substitute Liam Carr, who was drafted in from Hunslet for the match. A poor offload from Tuliatu was knocked on and Leeds had the scrum feed on the halfway line. From there, nothing could stop them as Mark Butterill’s side rolled their way towards the try line, and it was Carr who tried to offload the ball at first but then reached back over his head to dot the ball down.

Full back Tuohey was also eager to get in on the try scoring act and showed great speed and footwork to break from inside his own 20 metre area and beat the Broncos full back to score another great solo try.

Leyland and Adam Vrahnos scored consolation tries for the home side as the full time whistle loomed, but there was enough time for Turner to grab his hat trick try, thanks to another wide passing move. Morgan missed the conversion but nevertheless, the Rhinos ran out with a confident 40-20 result.