Leeds Rhinos may have picked up three wins from their opening four games but not everything is perfect at AMT Headingley – in fact, Rohan Smith could be left with quite the conundrum.
Leeds started the season battling to victory against Salford Red Devils. They came up short against Hull KR in Round Two but produced an excellent win against Catalans Dragons in Round Three before a comeback win over Leigh Leopards saw the Leeds Rhinos end Round Four joint top.
This upcoming week however they take on St Helens who are also on three wins from four in what will be a big test.
However, there is a big concern looming over Andy Ackers after Sky Sports reported he left the game against Leigh with a shin injury on his 250th appearance.
But exacerbating that is the fact the Leeds Rhinos now face a nervous wait on fellow hooker Jarrod O’Connor.
O’Connor was penalised for two high tackles against Leigh and escaped a yellow card but now his fate is in the hands of the Match Review Panel who as we saw with James Bentley don’t always follow the trend shown in games.
Leeds Rhinos battle back to defeat Leigh Leopards
Leeds Rhinos claimed the win as they battled back from 16-0 down to win 22-16. Rhyse Martin got the come back under way hitting a lovely line off a Brodie Croft pass to spin through and score.
Then Matt Frawley notched his first Leeds Rhinos try. Leigh were down to 12 after Gareth O’Brien had been sin binned. This came after an Andy Ackers break and support from Lachie Miller but O’Brien was penalised for a flop and was thus sin binned.
In the last minute of his time in the sin bin, Matt Frawley exploited the space carving the Leopards up down the middle to score and make it 16-12.
The Leeds Rhinos would level matters as they continue to show a willingness to play in tough situations with Rhyse Martin grubbering ahead allowing Paul Momirovski and Ash Handley to combine for the latter to make it six tries.
This time Martin missed the conversion but Leeds had the momentum. They would again attack down the left with Brodie Croft helping send Momirovski down the wing. Croft supported down the middle before teeing up Handley for his seventh of the season.
Leeds would then hold on with some terrific defence.
