Leeds Rhinos suffer massive blow

Last night Leeds Rhinos were well beaten by the Leigh Leopards.

Leeds have been winning games in spite of slow starts and they would have to do so again tonight as they fell 6-0 down early to an Edwin Ipape try as he chased a lovely grubber kick towards the posts to touch down.

By the 10 minute mark the Leopards led 10-0 as Kai O’Donnell scored from close range as set restarts were killing the Rhinos.

Leigh should have led 16-0 when Josh Charnley broke and looked to find Lachlan Lam but a last moment intervention from Richie Myler denied them.

The Leopards didn’t have to wait to extend their lead however with Ipape powering over from dummy half.

Leeds were lucky to not be further behind as ill-discipline and errors invited more pressure.

They did give themselves hope at the break as James Bentley hit a good line to cross and make it 16-6 on the stroke of halftime.

In the second half, Leeds asked some early questions but for the first 20 minutes the Leopards held on.

Then they were awarded a penalty and Ben Reynolds took the chance to make it 18-6.

Leeds thought they might have had a try back when a Rhyse Martin offload found James Bentley but the pass was deemed forward.

Late on, Leigh were given a chance to seal the win with another penalty from Ben Reynolds and he nailed it to make it 20-6.

The defeat wasn’t the only concern for Rohan Smith and his side though with Aidan Sezer unable to play in the second half.

Smith gave an update on the halfback.

“At the end of the first half he was really struggling to get around with a quad issue,” he said on the Rhinos’ YouTube Channel.

“He couldn’t remember when it started but he just could not get into a proper stride.

“They have assessed him and they’re not sure what it is but he certainly isn’t right.”

Meanwhile, there were concerns over Harry Newman at the end of the game when he looked in distress in the final tackle.

However, Smith confirmed he is okay:

“He looks to be okay. He got a bit of a scare there because of one of those tackles that are happening at the moment.

“I think it was his ankle that he was scared about.”