Leeds Rhinos 12-22 Salford Red Devils: Player ratings and talking points

It’s back to back defeats for Leeds Rhinos as ill-discipline and errors led to a 22-12 defeat to a resurgent Salford Red Devils tonight.

Talking Points:

Leeds a great team in spells
The Rhinos are a brilliant team and sometimes perhaps the best team in the league to watch but only for short spells. It took them until the last 15 minutes of both halves to start to really play and that is why they found themselves 22-6 down.

Sneyd still sensational
Salford weren’t at their attacking best today with some key strike players absent and losing Ryan Brierley early didn’t help. But their effort in defence to scramble hard was brilliant but second to the superb kicking game from Marc Sneyd and Brodie Croft proving the Red Devils have more tools to their arsenal.

Rhinos ill-discipline, errors and poor starts
These are the three things holding Leeds back. They gave away far too many penalties and made too many errors, many of which saw them miss huge opportunities. They also start games far too slowly.

The penalty try question
This is becoming a more frequent question in rugby league as we see players stop tries and receive yellow cards. The same happened again with Blake Austin. The question is should these yield a penalty try as well.

Questions to answer for Leeds
After back to back wins, it is now back to back defeats for Leeds and they have now lost more than they have won in 2023. It wasn’t a good display tonight from the eight time Super League Champions. There is work to do.

Player Ratings:

Leeds Rhinos
1 Richie Myler – 6
4 Nene MacDonald – 6
3 Harry Newman – 5
12 Rhyse Martin – 5
5 Ash Handley – 6
6 Blake Austin – 5
29 Jack Sinfield – 6
8 Mikolaj Oledzki – 5
14 Jarrod O’Connor – 5
15 Sam Lisone – 6
19 James McDonnell – 6
11 James Bentley – 5
13 Cameron Smith – 6
Substitutes
26 Corey Johnson – 5
22 Sam Walters – 5
18 Tom Holroyd – 5
20 Morgan Gannon – 5

Salford Red Devils –
1 Ryan Brierley – 6
22 Rhys Williams – 6
28 Deon Cross – 6
20 Ellis Longstaff – 7
5 Joe Burgess – 7
6 Brodie Croft – 8
7 Marc Sneyd – 8
16 Tyler Dupree – 8
9 Andy Ackers – 8
10 King Vuniyayawa – 6
12 Sam Stone – 7
3 Kallum Watkins – 7
13 Oliver Partington – 7
Substitutes
14 Chirs Atkin – 7
17 Shane Wright – 7
11 Andrew Dixon – N/A
8 Jack Ormondroyd – 7