Wigan Warriors 38, Leeds Rhinos 0: YEP video review

YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith reflects on Leeds Rhinos' 38-0 defeat at table-topping Wigan Warriors.

Transcript

00:00Here at the Brick Community Stadium Wigan have hammered Leeds 38-0. Remarkably Rhinos

00:08are still in the hunt for a top six spot. Other results have gone their way with Lee

00:14losing to Hull KR but it will take a massive improvement for Leeds to get into the six

00:19and to be honest tonight's game really showed where they are. They're not at the same level

00:25yet as Wigan who were a cut off from the start. Leeds got off to a terrible start 10-0 down

00:31after as many minutes and they were never going to recover from that really. They did

00:35actually dig in and have a decent spell for 20 minutes. They were competitive for parts

00:40of the game but Wigan were too good in every department. Leeds fell back into some old

00:46habits, bad old habits, conceding costly penalties, there were three in the first 20 minutes and

00:52making errors. One just before half time when they only trialled 10-0 and they'd probably

00:57been pretty happy to go in at the break 10-0 down but they made an error and Wigan scored

01:01on the final play of the half. Second half again a couple of penalties led to an early

01:07score from Wigan and from then on it was just demonstration from Leeds and they didn't particularly

01:12manage to do that unfortunately. There were some positives I thought. Young Alfie Edgel

01:1820-year-old playing only his second start at Fulbright which is his specialist position

01:23I thought and he had a good game, dropped one kick but other than that was safe and

01:27showed some good signs and rightly so. He came in for his third Super League appearance

01:32on the wing and I thought he was absolutely excellent. Some strong tackles, really willing,

01:37tried to take some good carries and had a couple of good runs. One in particular got

01:43the Leeds fans on their feet so he's a real prospect for the future. Leeds now have to

01:48go to Hull KR and win next week to have any chance of securing a place in the top six.

01:57It's doable but really it's going to take something special for Leeds to go there and

02:02get anything positive out of the season so a really disappointing night for them. Good

02:07thing though, the line-nose women had a good win over Wigan in the current race of 24-4

02:13but other than that it's not been a great night for Leeds.