Rohan Smith says New Zealand are “the best in the world” as he reflects on special “event” put on by Leeds Rhinos

Leeds were well beaten 74-0 tonight by a brilliant New Zealand side but for Rohan Smith that wasn’t the main thing to take away from the game,

His focus lay more on the event as fans got to see some of the best players in the world take to the pitch as well as say goodbye to Rhinos heroes like Tom Briscoe and Adam Cuthbertson.

After the game Smith praised New Zealand described them as “the best in the world” and tipped them to be a real danger in the World Cup: “They were tremendous there, they’re here to play an attack the World Cup. They’re very quick, well prepared and extremely athletic for any representative group and they’ve got more athletes to come into that group that have just landed today.

“You’d think they’ll be a real threat to the World Cup.”

It was the quality of the Kiwis coupled with the emotions we saw at fulltime which made it such a special event and that was Smith’s take believing any rugby league fan would have enjoyed tonight, nearly 10,000 Leeds fans in attendance certainly did: “It was an event that was the whole purpose. For the Kiwis is was to get a hit out before the World Cup and for us to farewell some long serving players and enjoy a night of rugby without worrying the result being the key.”

“In the end, if you’re a rugby league fan you’ve come and enjoyed that because you’ve seen some of the best players to play the game in the last 10, 15 years.”