Leeds Rhinos took home a 26-0 victory away at Huddersfield Giants on Thursday night, as they nilled their opposition in consecutive matches for the first time in almost 60 years.
Tries from Harry Newman, Morgan Gannon, Brodie Croft and Mikolaj Oledzki backed up Leeds’ win over Hull FC from the previous week, but despite the two points, it was a performance with plenty of room for improvement.
Croft scored the third try of the evening, as he combined with Lachie Miller to finish off an eye-catching try. The former Man of Steel has improved significantly in recent weeks, and has scored four tries in his last four matches.
Speaking to club media after the performance, the former Salford man said that whilst the two points were pleasing, the defensive part of the game was the key focus, and what they are most proud of.
“I think the nil part is what we’re probably most satisfied about, two weeks in a row now,” said Croft. “There’s been a few games this year where we’ve had teams score a try in the last 10 minutes or so and that be their only try of the match, to actually keep them to nil has been really pleasing.
It’s something that we’re priding ourselves on this year definitely, our defence, so it’s always good when you get results like that.
Leeds have conceded just two tries in their last four matches, with Castleford Tigers and Hull KR both crossing for consolation tries once the game had already been won.
Leeds Rhinos man applauds teammate after positional switch due to Jake Connor injury
The Rhinos had to deal with a huge blow during the match, as star man and Croft’s halfback partner, Jake Connor was forced to leave the field due to a rib injury. The England hopeful went down the tunnel early into the second half, forcing a reshuffle.
Croft admitted he was pleased with how his side regrouped after the injury, and praised stand-in half Morgan Gannon on filling in well for the injured Connor.
“I think it’s something that this team has been really good at this year. Whenever someone goes down, someone’s come in and done a job.
I thought Ganno did really well when he came and filled in there. He’s done it a few times this year now. He’s a big body and plays to his strengths, but then he adds some nice subtleties to his game as well which is nice. We made do with what we had and got the result in the end.
The win for Brad Arthur’s men puts them level on points with Wigan Warriors, who after DEFEAT/VICTORY over St Helens on Friday night, means the top two race is becoming more and more tense.
The Rhinos face the Matt Peet’s Warriors in the final round of the season, and will be a winner-takes-second match, and one that both sides will not want to lose. Croft admitted that getting a home semi-final is the biggest target at the moment, in what will be a huge boost to their Grand Final chances.
It’s always a great atmosphere to play at AMT [Headingley]… Hopefully we can have a big finish to the last two games of the year and get a home final. That’s the ultimate goal really, we’re not going to lie about it. We want to get that home final, that would be special. But, it starts with this week, Thursday night at Catalans. We’ll be looking for and expecting a performance from the team and hopefully we can back it up.
He continued: “We can only control what we can control and we’ve been doing a good job of that the last few weeks and we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves yet. We got Catalans this week, we need to do a job there first and then obviously at Wigan, that will be a big one to finish the season on and then if we can get that second spot that would be great.
