St Helens 22 Leeds Rhinos 18: YEP video review

YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith reflects on another disappointing loss for Leeds Rhinos.

Transcript

00:00 It's been a very disappointing evening here at St Helens where Leitrain has been beaten

00:04 22-18 by the reigning champions. A frustrating night for Leeds who were in front a couple

00:12 of times, were 12-6 up just before half time, weren't able to hang on to that lead going

00:17 into the break and then hit the front 18-16 with only a quarter of an hour left and then

00:24 conceded a converted try immediately after that to really hand the game to Saints. It

00:30 was a match Leeds could and should have won in my opinion. Saints had a very strong back

00:35 division but they were missing a lot of forward set and inexperienced bench. It was a real

00:40 opportunity for Leeds and it's an opportunity missed. Once again Leeds' inconsistency coming

00:45 to the fore. They now face a real struggle to get into the top six. In my opinion they

00:51 have the quality to do that but they're just not playing well enough or long enough patches

00:56 to beat the top teams at the moment. They're going to need a big improvement against Leeds

01:01 next week which is a game Leeds certainly should win with Leeds being just six days

01:06 away from the Challenge Cup final. It all depends really which Leeds team turn up. When

01:12 they're on the game they're as good as anyone in the competition but they're not on the

01:16 game often enough. There were some positives today. I thought Nene MacDonald was excellent.

01:22 Started in the centre, moved to the wing when David Crosser too was injured. Scored a good

01:26 try, went really well. In fact Leeds scored three good tries. I thought Rhys Martin took

01:31 his score very well and as did Sam Walters who was a bit unfortunate to have one disallowed

01:38 just after half time. That might have made a difference but I don't think Leeds could

01:42 argue so much with the result. It's another tight game against St Helens. That's one point,

01:48 two points and four points in three meetings this season. But unfortunately for Leeds they've

01:53 come out on the wrong end twice and now they face a real battle to get into the top six.

01:59 The odds are against them. Mathematically they could still do it but they're going to

02:02 need to improve and to be a lot more consistent.

02:04 [BLANK_AUDIO]