Challenge Cup: Salford City 10 Leeds 16

by NRL

Leeds booked their place in the Carnegie Challenge Cup Quarter Final with a hard earned 16-10 win at Salford in a game played in tough weather conditions.

Leeds played into a strong wind in the second half and heavy rain fell throughout the afternoon however they showed enough composure and desire to come back from 10-6 down in the second half to score two unanswered tries through Ben Jones-Bishop and new signing Shaun Lunt.

The Rhinos had dominated the early exchanges and it looked as if they would open the scoring. However, a break from Jodie Broughton got the home side going and that pressure eventually led to a try for prop Lee Jewitt to power over between the posts. Daniel Holdsworth added the conversion to make it 6-0 after as many minutes.

Leeds should have equalised with two great opportunities. The first came when Chris Clarkson made a great break on halfway and had options to his left and right but was caught in two minds and was tackled with the ball by Luke Patten. The next chance came for Carl Ablett as he attempted to score from close range but was judged to have lost control of the ball as he stretched out.

The visitors did finally level the score with four minutes to go in the half. The pressure finally found an opening with a clever grubber kick from Lunt off the outside of his boot straight into the path of Brent Webb to touch down. Sinfield converted to level the score at half time.

The second half started with Salford having the chance to put some pressure on with a controlled spell of possession. Leeds defended well but they were forced to concede two drop outs and eventually you sensed that Salford would get a score. It came from a cross field kick that defeated Brent Webb and Zak Hardaker and Broughton was on the spot to pick up the loose ball and score. Holdsworth missed the conversion but his side led for the second time.

Leeds were grateful to Lee Smith after he made a clever break from behind his own line to relieve the pressure after a long spell on their own line. The visitors got a penalty on the back of that and were able to move up field.

Once again Leeds responded well and looked to ask questions of Salford with their offload game. On two occasions, the ball was spilled but doubt was being put in the home side's mind. The Rhinos finally crossed in a score that was similar to the Reds earlier effort in the half. Sinfield kicked to the corner and Ablett and Patten contested the ball only for it to bounce clear and Jones-Bishop was fastest to react. Uncharacteristically Sinfield missed the conversion to leave the game tied at 10-10 with ten minutes to go.

The game and progress in the Carnegie Challenge Cup were in the balance and the Rhinos sealed their place three minutes later. Webb and Sinfield produced offloads to get the Rhinos going forward before McGuire darted for the line and looked to be going over for a try. However, he had the presence of mind to look back inside and offloaded to Lunt, who caught the ball and dived over the line in the same motion. Sinfield added the conversion to book the Rhinos place in the last eight.

Salford City 10
T: Lee Jewitt, Jodie Broughton
G: Daniel Holdsworth

Leeds 10
T: Brent Webb, Ben Jones-Bishop, Lee Smith
G: Kevin Sinfield 2

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