Rhyse Martin insists Friday night’s dominant win over Hull FC was the perfect way to say goodbye to the Leeds Rhinos faithful. The clash was Leeds’ last home game of the season and with Martin set to take up a two-year deal with Hull KR next year, it was an emotional occasion for the Papua New Guinea international.
It’s fair to say he didn’t let the occasion get the better of him, though, with the back-rower kicking 13 goals on what was a night to remember for the Rhinos. Leeds ran in 10 tries against the quite frankly pathetic Black and Whites, with youngster Alfie Edgell touching down four times.
It was something of a carnival atmosphere at Headingley, then, as Leeds moved into the play-off spots, at least temporarily, with just two more regular season games to play. Martin could be seen saying farewell to the Rhinos fans more than 90 minutes after the full-time whistle had blown, with the back-rower ensuring he got to every single one of the fans who had stayed behind for an autograph, selfie or just a chat.
“Yeah, it was,” Martin told the Leeds Rhinos YouTube channel when asked if it was the perfect way to sign off at Headingley. “I think, the boys were pretty disappointed after last week’s result. I think we deserved it for ourselves, for our fans. I think it was, yeah, the perfect way.
“The big focus was to come back out and build pressure again and pretty much start from scratch and not worry about that first half. We did that and put the pressure on. First set, they were kicking down inside their half, and then they just broke straight away.
“So we did really well to execute, I think the taking the two kind of made us re-set, not push the pass, and we ended up scoring anyway, off a kick-off set. We kind of played the platform first half, and then we finished the game strong.”
It was James Donaldson’s last home game in blue and amber, too, and to mark the occasion Martin allowed the forward to take the final conversion of the night, which he just about knocked over.
“Yeah, that’s not what we worked on,” Martin laughed. “We should have got a practice session in this week, but Donno used to tell me he was a kicker back in when he was a junior. So obviously that all went out the window and the pressure got to him. He just snuck it over. So yeah, it was a nice way to finish off again.
“I reckon if I was to watch that back, I could tell you there was a few more other things wrong with that kick. But we’ll go with the three ACLs.”
Of course, the season is far from over for Martin with Leeds well in the running for a top six spot under Brad Arthur. The Rhinos go to Wigan Warriors next week before rounding off the season with a trip to Martin’s next club Hull KR.
“I think when we played them (Wigan) a few weeks ago we put a pretty strong performance together,” he said. “I think they’re going to come flying out of the blocks and be ready to play. We need to be up for it. We need to be up for a game to win 2-0 or just getting that grind and win anyway we possibly can, but we know that we’re going to come out firing.”
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