Leeds Rhinos vs Toulouse review

They’ve finally done it, at the seventh time of asking Leeds have finally won a competitive fixture in front of their home fans. Brad Dwyer was the star with two tries and a try assist as the Rhinos ran out 25-14 winners over a poor Toulouse outfit.

Although Leeds had the majority and possession it was the away team that struck first under the Headingley lights. In their first foray into the Leeds 20m zone Tony Gigot put up a high chip to the right edge where centre Paul Marcon was able to claim the ball above his head just before the try line.

At 6-0 down and with Leeds not yet scaring the Toulouse line despite their much greater possession, many fans could feel the inevitability of a new season low until James Donaldson levelled the scores after 29 mins. With Leeds again camped on the Toulouse line Brad Dwyer stepped out from dummy half and put the charging Donaldson through a gap left by the Toulouse defenders anticipating a play out wide. Dwyer then went from provider to score as he scored the second try of the game just before halftime. In the same spot as the previous try, this time the hooker dummied the pass and went himself through a gap in the porous Toulouse line. This meant that Leeds headed into the break with a fairly comfortable 12-6 lead.

Leeds started the second half where they finished the first with them pressuring the Toulouse line. This pressure finally told ten minutes after the break when Briscoe scored the third try for Leeds. This time it was Leeming who attacked down the short side and fired a miss pass to Briscoe on the wing who had positioned himself on the outside of the Toulouse winger Russell. Leeds added a further three points through a Martin penalty and a Kruise Leeming drop goal on 60 minutes to stretch the score line out to 19-6 after the hour mark.

If Leeds fans were starting to relax their anxiety would’ve quickly returned when Matty Russell scored his team's second try with what was most likely the highest quality phase of play from either team. Toulouse finally back attacking the Leeds line played the ball from right to left through their halfbacks which created a mismatch that found Russell unmarked on the wing. Any thoughts of a gallic comeback were squashed when Dwyer scored a carbon copy of his first try dummying his way over metres from the line. Toulouse did score a final consolation try 6 minutes from time when Vavai burst through the would-be tacklers of Simpson and Leeming after charging on to a short ball from stand in halfback Marion.

Although it wasn’t pretty Leeds did what they needed to do on Friday and finally picked up their second win of the season. Crucially this win also means that they are now 3 points clear of the bottom of the table. The game also gave opportunities for players like Max Simpson and Jack Sinfield to get another 80 minutes of super league experience which will stand them in good stead in the coming years,I also thought, other than Brad Dwyer, that Jack Broadbanet and Cameron Smith were two standout performers on the night. After being moved to fullback Broadbentt was constantly popping up in the line in attack and also returned the ball powerfully from the backfield. 

Despite the win, I came away from the game feeling there were more negatives from the game than positives. The Rhinos did not look threatening in attack, other than Brad Dwyer round the ruck, and in defence Leeds were lucky that Toulouse couldn’t get a foothold in the game, The away team had at most 5 or 6 phases of play on the Leeds line and came away scoring three tries. This was disappointing to see as in the previous games Leeds had managed to repel attacks on their line by much stronger teams in Huddersfield and Castleford.

In attack it was the same old story with Leeds looking slow and sluggish throughout. Leeds spent much of the game in the Toulouse half yet all but one of their tries were scored from the base of the ruck. It’s hard not to feel like a stronger team would have scored 40 or 50 points past the Toulouse defence. Even the one try that we did score on the wing was more due to poor defensive spacing by Toulouse than Leeds skillfully creating a gap in the defence. It was symptomatic of the Leeds season that on 60 minutes already 12 points ahead Kruise Leeming felt it was necessary to kick a drop goal from 10 metres out on the last tackle.

It feels harsh to say this given how often this player has stepped up and held this team together over the past two seasons but Kruise Leeming had one of his poorest games in a long time. In the first half especially, the makeshift halfback was guilty of taking too much control of the game in attack. He was constantly calling for the ball either side of the ruck and really stifled Jack Sinfield. In the second half as the margin between the two teams increased Leeming relinquished some of the control and we got to see a number of good moments from Sinfield, including some mature kicks to the corner that helped to pin Toulouse in their own half. It’s understandable from Kruise given his senior position in the team and the players around but it is important going forward that he does try to temper his involvements for maximum impact.

Looking ahead this next month is crucial for Leeds. Rohan Smith will hopefully be landing in the UK shortly to take over his new team and start to put in place his own structures and philosophies. Leeds also announced on Tuesday morning the resigning of Zak Hardaker until the end of the year. Although not a unanimously popular signing given his previous indiscretions it would have been a no brainer for the club given the number of injuries to our outside backs, In the Toulouse game injuries to Sutcliffe and Briscoe mean that he will likely be thrown straight into the team on Friday against Hull KR.

Thank you for reading and remember All Leeds aren’t we.