Six games and a month into the season, Leeds Rhinos are already out of the hunt for one of rugby league’s two major honours.
Rhinos’ 20-6 Betfred Challenge Cup defeat by St Helens - a week after losing to the same opponents in Super League - ended their Wembley hopes and left the YEP’s fans’ panel wondering where the season goes from here. It is early days, but most of our jury were bitterly disappointed with the team’s performance and aren’t confident of an improvement at Castleford Tigers this week.
Like the philosopher George Berkeley suggested about falling trees making sounds, if you didn’t turn up to see Leeds get beaten by St Helens, did it really happen? Sadly, those watching at home still had to guess some of the time, as the BBC camera work cut away to random crowd shots at the vital moment. I guess with all their rugby union experience, tries came as a novelty.
For the second week in a row we suffered a three tries to one defeat to Saints. In appalling weather, it was a surprise either team could play any rugby at all so it’s a credit to both teams that they provided such good entertainment. If the last two weeks have proved anything it’s that there is a very fine line between winning and losing. Leeds didn’t play badly at all.
St Helens were our opponents, once again, for the sixth round of the Challenge Cup. For me, this tournament has lost a lot through the years. Because of the format, the time it is spread over and other reasons, it doesn’t engage me like it did when I first started to support Leeds 30-odd years ago. I think the rain is becoming a regular part of Rhinos nights and Friday was no different. Our effort this week, I think, was our worst this year; we didn’t have any game plan and it was very scrappy.
honestly think Leeds are either on the verge of building a successful team or on the precipice of more mediocrity. It’s so hard to call with the form so far this season. They are either sublime or ridiculous and so far the latter has by far overridden the former. If you want to break it down just based on last week’s performance against St Helens, Leeds are miles off and the coach has some work to do and some questions to answer.
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