Leeds Rhinos: Brad Dwyer still savouring his golden moment

Dwyer was the unlikely hero yesterday after a thrilling derby went into golden-point extra-time, bashing over the first one-pointer of his career from fully 40 metres out.

Boss Dave Furner’s emotions were captured by the Sky TV cameras as he went from dismay at who found himself in position to take the kick, followed by ecstacy when the goal went over to seal a 21-20 win.

Dwyer had never kicked any sort of goal before in his professional career and was as shocked as everyone else.

“It’s pretty crazy really,” he said of being the first player to score a golden point in a live televised Betfred Super League game.

“It’s just one of those moments you have to soak in and enjoy – it’s probably never going to happen again.”

Furner said afterwards Dwyer claimed to have practiced drop goals in training, but nobody in Leeds’ camp had noticed.

“I don’t think I’ve kicked many, to be fair,” the player himself admitted.

“But it’s pointless kicking them all in training – you might as well save them for the big occasions like that!”

Furner may not have been happy when Dwyer got the ball at the end of the first set in extra-time, but the hooker was up for the opportunity.

He insisted: “I was thinking a couple of times if I get a chance here I’ll have a go.

“I was at 13 and Matt [Parcell] was still on so I thought we’d see where we end up and if we do get a chance I wouldn’t mind having a go.

“The one before, Sutty [Liam Sutcliffe] spooned so I thought ‘why not’?”

Rhinos’ players and fans celebrated as if they had won a cup final and there was a feeling a monkey might be off their backs.

It was only their second win of the season, ended a five-match losing run and came after they had seen a 20-4 lead wiped out in the space of 20 second half minutes.

“With the tough start we’ve had we have been so close in so many games,” Dwyer added. “It’s massive for us, it’s one we’ve needed.

“We’ve had a big couple of weeks in camp, coming together as a team and squad.

“We needed something like that and hopefully now we push on and see where that takes us.”

Leeds had led in six of their seven defeats before Thursday’s game without being able to kick on and it seemed like a case of deja vu.

“It’s a weird thing,” Dwyer said. “We have been in control of so many games and then had spells like that and it’s something we will have to fix up.

“Sometimes it is just momentum and where you are at. Sometimes it just takes moments and an occasion like that [yesterday] to just get you out of that.”

“Hopefully that’s us now and we can build on it, but we will soon find out. We’ve shown so many good signs and been in so many games against big teams and just not been consistent enough. Hopefully now we can kick on.”

Dwyer was Leeds’ man of the match and of his overall performance, he observed: “I wouldn’t say it was one of my best in terms of impact, but I’ve got a lot of belief at the minute.

“I had a good couple of months at the back end of last year and started this one pretty good. Things are starting to fall into place for me.

“Hopefully I can be consistent and in this environment I’m in now I do feel like I’m thriving.”