Leeds Rhinos fans call for new Blake Austin deal, hail win over Warrington Wolves, tip success at Salford

Victory at Warrington Wolves, on the back of the previous week’s win over Huddersfield Giants - plus the return of some influential players - has our Jury believing Rhinos might be ready for a march up the Betfred Super League table.

Leeds face another big test at Salford Red Devils on Sunday as they seek to record three straight wins for the first time this season. Here’s how our supporters’ group feel about recent events.

IAIN SHARP

The sound of rubbing out and the faint whiff of correction fluid was common on Thursday night, as Leeds thrashed Warrington and Loiners everywhere scrubbed off any provisional appointments for the evening of the Grand Final on Saturday, October 14.

The seminal Aussie Rules film ‘The Club’ describes the concept of the ‘March Champion’, someone that looks impressive at the start and yet has evaporated towards the business end of the season. Or to crystallise it further … Warrington.

Leeds, on the other hand, fuelled by Blake Austin’s Powers (international man of mystery as to why we’re been so inconsistent for so long) are starting to look something like and the teams around them in the league are hitting rocky patches.

Have Leeds finally hit form? Will they scrape a play-off place mid-September? And then, like last year, go all the way to the Grand Final?

Finally, a word of caution to anyone heading to Salford next weekend. ‘You, Me and Dupree’ relates to a 2006 comedy film starring Owen Wilson and not the home team’s PA, announcing the crowd to the players. Don’t get caught out!

BECKY OXLEY

Well, is it too early to say we are on a run and going to do a repeat of last year’s nine wins in 11 games at the business end of the season?

Something has certainly changed and it’s a real positive to see. We came out on fire against Warrington and were matching points with the timer after 16 minutes.

Blake Austin was on fire in another man of the match performance. He was running and finding the gaps, setting up tries and running the Warrington defence ragged. The whole team, though, were showing good attacking and defensive strength. Warrington got close to our line in the second half on a good few occasions and we were on fire defensively.

To concede only six points in two matches is immense and shows how quickly things can change from a few short weeks ago where people were calling for Rohan Smith to be sacked.

Next up is Salford away and can we make it three out of three? Salford are never easy opposition for us and they will want to keep in the top-six also. I just hope we can continue what we are doing and continue to get players back and not get any injuries. I’m going to predict another Leeds win this week and let’s continue getting behind the boys.

DAVID MUHL

Two wins in a row! All I can say is about time too.

This was a good win away from home, admittedly against a team in a bit of a dip in form, but a good all-round team showing.

There were good individual performances, especially from Richie Myler and Blake Austin. Austin and Sezer’s partnership is certainly starting to flourish and long may it continue.

My wish for the week is that Uncle Gary Hetherington makes Austin a good offer and keeps him at the club.

For the second week in a row our forwards laid a good platform, making good yardage to give our backs space to play in.

Sam Lisone kept his good run going off the bench, he is one of those players who gets you off your seat every time he gets the ball.

It may be a coincidence, though I don’t think it is, that our good form has coincided with players reverting to their proper positions. Ash Handley, for one , looks far more confident on the wing than at full-back.

Most of our scoring came in the first 20 minutes and after that Leeds were made to work defensively which they did magnificently, Warrington’s only try coming from a pass Miami Dolphins would have been proud of.

James McDonnell has turned out to be one of the signings of the season, his defence and work rate is excellent and he’s not bad in attack either.

We have a long turnaround until our next fixture against Salford, who joined us in the not very welcome club of teams beaten by Wakefield. Let’s hope they don’t spring back against us on Sunday, but I believe if we continue playing like this and keep free of more injuries, we can beat anyone in the league and who knows, maybe there’ll be a repeat of last year’s second half of the season run to Old Trafford.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

Just over a year has passed since our last impressive win at Warrington which inspired a push for the play-offs. Leeds pulled off an equally impressive performance and result on Thursday night as we kept ourselves in the hunt for the top-six.

Similar to the Huddersfield game, the Rhinos played like they had a point to prove. Blake Austin was once again the star man as he pulled the strings against his former team and made a strong claim for a new deal.

If we are to reach the play-offs this year, we cannot afford a dip in form from our number six, so hopefully he has put his inconsistent performances behind him.

What impressed me most is how we kept the Wolves down to just one try, which arguably should not have been given in the first place.

Whilst I appreciate Warrington are going through a rough patch, this easily could have become a banana skin for Leeds.

However we kept the door firmly shut for most of the game and there was a real commitment in defensive efforts from the team which we have rarely seen this season.

The performance on a whole was a step in the right direction to finding some form at the most important part of the season.

However I felt like we could have had more of a cutting edge about us. Warrington were there for the taking and we should have flexed our attacking muscle once again, like we did against Huddersfield.

I am very happy with the win, I just think another high scoring attacking performance would boost confidence massively as we push for the play-offs.

Looking ahead to Salford and I think we will make it three wins on the bounce. Having joined us as the only other team to have lost to Wakefield this season, they are another team who are struggling at the moment and Sunday provides a perfect opportunity for us to get some momentum going. Even if star man Brodie Croft is back for Salford, I back the boys to get the win from the trip to Greater Manchester.

SAM BROCKSOM

Well, the Jury said we needed to back up the win against Huddersfield and we did. An incredible first half performance killed off the game, despite us only scoring 16 points. Warrington weren’t at the races at all, but take nothing away from the outstanding performances from the likes of Blake Austin, Aidan Sezer and Nene Macdonald.

For me though, one of the key moments of the match has gone under the radar, and that is the tackle from James McDonnell on Matty Ashton as he tried to break away. McDonnell has by far been our most consistent player this season and hasn’t looked out of place at all. If or when James Bentley does leave, I think next year the 11 shirt will be his and he and Morgan Gannon will be our back-row partnership for years to come.

On to Salford, who were beaten by Wakefield last week. They will want to bounce back, but with them having so many injuries to key players we have to be looking at this one as a winnable game. They beat us in the reverse fixture, it’s time to get some revenge and put in a strong performance against the Red Devils.