'I hope we've done the family proud' Leeds Rhinos' win over Castleford Tigers inspired by Rob Burrow says coach Rohan Smith

Both teams wore a one-off jersey inspired by Burrow's battle with motor neurone disease and Rhinos' kit was designed by his young daughters Macy and Maya.

The girls led the Leeds players on to the field and the family were cheered by both sets of fans when they appeared on the big screen during the game.

The Burrows visited Rhinos' hotel before the match and the Maya and Macy talked to the players about how they came up with the design for the shirt.

Smith said: "I think it meant a lot to the whole club and we spoke about it a couple of times during the week, without getting too emotional.

"Sometimes you can build it up too much, but we had the pleasure of the family coming to speak to the players before the game.

"His beautiful little girls talking about the making of the jersey and the design was very special for all of us.

"I'd like to hope we've done the family proud."

Rhinos scored first, but trailed 10-6 at the break.

They regained the lead soon afterwards and five unanswered tries wrapped up the win before Tigers ran in two late consolations.

Smith felt Rhinos were rewarded after half-time for playing "hard and tough" in the opening period.

He said: "I liked how we started the second half, really direct.

"We opened up some opportunities on the back of it, it was a pleasing team performance."

The coach described himself as "happy-ish" with the 23-minute spell when Leeds scored their 28 second half points.

"There's still plenty to work on in some game management situations," he said.

"But when we play together and we are patient, we are hard to defend against."

Captain Kruise Leeming was ruled out earlier in the week with a foot injury and Leeds were also missing stand-off Blake Austin, due to a damaged calf muscle.

Centre Zak Hardaker suffered a dead leg in the opening few minutes and was replaced in the second half.

"I thought the young guys who stepped in - Jarrod O'Connor and Corey Johnson - did a great job."