Leeds Rhinos 37

St. Helens 18

By PHIL HOWARTH

THE Saints revival was stopped in its tracks by Leeds Rhinos' inspirational skipper Iestyn Harris on Friday night.

The 22-year-old scored a crucial try after the Knowsley Road men had pulled back from an 18-0 deficit and delivered a perfect eight out of eight kicks in a rollercoaster clash.

Despite the final scoreline, Saints were left feeling hard done by after dubious refereeing decisions saw two debatable tries allowed in the first half and hooker Keiron Cunningham sin binned in the second.

But it was still a tremendous taster for next month's play-offs, like the Wigan/Leeds clash of two week's earlier and leaves the outcome far from certain should the two teams meet again this season.

A crowd of nearly 12,000 had Headingley buzzing as the teams tore into each other in the opening stages.

Leeds took the lead after four minutes when Chris Smith attempted to intercept Ryan Sheridan's pass to Brad Godden, leaving the space open for Marcus St. Hilaire to score in the corner.

Harris's swerving kick from the touch line added the conversion. Saints poured forward with Chris Smith and Sean Long in particularly inspirational form.

But the Leeds defence proved rock solid, moving up quickly to offer little space for the Saints half backs to work in.

The size of the task facing Saints became painfully clear as they held off for 18 tackles within the Leeds 22 metre line after nearly 20 minutes of the match.

Leeds then hit back to score with the next set of six.

The try looked spectacular as Terry Newton somehow released the ball one-handed to Adrian Morley in the tackle and the second rower powered home from 35 metres.

Saints were stunned as referee John Connolly ignored calls that the pass was marginaly forward and ruled the try good without reference to the video referee. Harris converted.

Chris Smith broke brilliantly from deep within his own half soon after but simply did not have the leg speed to evade winger Leroy Rivett.

It went from bad to worse for Saints after 28 minutes when Newton flicked the ball aside in the tackle, it bounced forward off Darryl Powell's shin and the stand off chased it over the whitewash.

Full Paul Atcheson seemed to hold Powell up over the line and the video replay appeared inconclusive but the extra official ruled in Leeds favour.

Most teams would have buckled at 18-0 with the home side defending brilliantly, but Saints were in no mood for surrender.

And they got the try they richly deserved two minutes from the break when Atcheson's pass sent Paul Sculthorpe charging over in the corner.

Long hit the target from the touch line for two vital points.

Coach Shaun McRae's half-time words of wisdom hit the spot and Saints came out for the second half in quite majestic form.

Rivett knocked on as he fumbled a Karle Hammond kick under no pressure early on and Leeds were made to pay dearly as Paul Newlove sent in substitute Vila Matautia piling over with three men hanging on to him. Long converted.

Punishment

Saints pulled closer after 46 minutes when Marc Glanville interfered at the play-the-ball and Long kicked the penalty.

Still Saints pressed and it was a moment of magic from Newlove that pulled the scores level. The centre took Sculthorpe's pass on the half way line before palming off his marker and racing home.

Long missed a relatively simple kick to deny Saints the lead. Leeds steadied the ship through a Harris penalty after 54 minutes.

The decisive moment came just before the hour at a scrum resulting from Hammond kicking into touch.

Harris regathered and raced round the blind side before Saints woke up to the danger. The full back raced 50 metres to score and then tacked on the extras.

A. Hammond high tackle on Sheridan saw Harris kick Leeds to the relative safety of 18-28 on 66 minutes and score his 400th point for the club in only 46 appearances.

Controversy reigned once more on 70 minutes when Cunningham was sin binned for pushing an opponent in an incident later claimed to have involved racial comments from a Leeds player.

Saints battled on but suffered further punishment from a Graham Holroyd drop goal and a Sheridan try. Harris converted to complete a 20 point personal tally.

Team: Paul Atcheson; Chris Smith, Damien Smith, Paul Newlove, Anthony Sullivan; Karle Hammond, Sean Long; Brett Goldspink, Keiron Cunningham, Julian O'Neill, Apollo Perelini, Paul Davidson, Paul Sculthorpe. Subs used: Ian Pickavance, Vila Matautia, Paul Anderson, Paul Wellens.

Chris Smith constantly troubled the Leeds defence with another fine display of gutsy running

Substitute Ian Pickavance worked hard after coming on as a prop forward.

Paul Newlove outstanding try pulled the scores level at 18-18.

Vila Matautia looked sharp as his match fitness improves.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.