Leeds Rhinos fans jubilant after Giants rout, but issue warning ahead of Warrington Wolves showdown

Two weeks after hitting rock bottom against Wakefield Trinity, Rhinos bounced back with a sparkling nine-try performance, led by inspired stand-off Blake Austin.

Off the field it was also a memorable occasion as the club paid tribute to one of its greatest heroes, Rob Burrow.

DAVID MUHL

On a very emotional night Leeds put on a show and what a show it was - one that Rob Burrow’s teams would have been proud of.

Off the pitch the action was immense. From the sideline interviews with the coaches by Rob’s kids and Sky’s brilliant video celebration of Rob to the 777 children dancing on the field, this showed the rugby league community at its best, coming together to support Rob, his family and the MND community.

The crowd constantly chanting Rob’s name showed what affection the supporters have for the man.

On the pitch the players kept the celebratory mood going with an excellent team performance. It does make you wonder where this team was against Wakefield and Castleford because on this sort of form, they could beat any team in the league.

Leeds’ spine really clicked; Richie Myler, Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin were awesome. When Austin is on form he really is an excellent player.

This was a total performance, every one of the 17 playing well. David Fusitu’a showed some excellent touches and if he can stay fit will score plenty of tries, but he’s as good to the team as me sat in the stands.

One of the most pleasing things for me about the game was the way the forwards took on Huddersfield. Sam Lisone made an excellent return after injury producing some great hard runs, one in particular just before half time and Sam Walters showed what we will miss next year.

Hopefully this performance will shut up some of the keyboard warriors and take a bit of the pressure off Rohan Smith.

This week Rhinos travel to Warrington who seem to have a dip in form and now might be a good time to play them, if we can get last Friday’s team on the field.

IAIN SHARP

I understand the leaked plot for the next ‘Mission Impossible’ movie will feature Tom Cruise trying to get to Headingley for a Leeds game by public transport.

Last week, it was Northern Rail causing chaos by cancelling trains before and after the match, proving once again how fans of the city’s most successful team are shabbily treated.

On the subject of not turning up, Huddersfield were woeful on the night as Leeds ran riot. If their coach, Ian Watson, survives much longer on current form, he’ll be investigated by modern science for being coated in something yet more non-stick’ than Teflon.

The game focused on the awful motor neurone disease and in tribute Leeds rolled back the years and played as if Rob Burrow was still out there.

Even the 40-minute crumble, where the team play great in one half and then look like they’ve never met one another in the other, failed to materialise. It clearly brought a smile to the face of the great man and that was worth the admission money alone.

Next week, we’ll be trying to answer the question ‘James Bentley, has he changed his hairdo, to avoid detection by the match review panel’?

BECKY OXLEY

‘Wow’ was the first word that came to me when I sat down to write this.

There were a real multitude of emotions last week and I’m still on a high. Rob Burrow and his beautiful family were guests of honour and I can’t lie, there were some tears shed.

The way Rob is still smiling is an inspiration for me and the whole family are beautiful and courageous.

I think this gave the players some fire as well, knowing that a legend was watching. From the kick-off there was a different feel coming from the players. They were attacking and passing the ball around and looking for the spaces and passing wide.

The play was consistent for the full 80 and to get to 54-0 at full-time was a massive achievement. To not allow the opposition to score takes a lot and defensively we deserved it.

We were on them and I think it has to be the best we have played all season, bar the St Helens game a few weeks ago. The week off has obviously allowed us to regroup and work on things.

We have Warrington away on Thursday and they have slipped back in the last few weeks, but remain second in the table.

They are a good side this year and it won’t be easy, but I have every confidence in coming away with the two points. As the saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

For once, my faith in this Leeds Rhinos team and Rohan Smith paid off as we convincingly put a weak Huddersfield team to the sword.

Producing a full 80-minute performance has been a struggle for Leeds this season, however the whole team turned up against the Giants and answered some of the many criticisms they have rightfully received.

Blake Austin, who has been one of standout performers this season, looked dangerous every time he touched the ball.

He provided two try assists and made 120 metres, which is a huge effort from a real leader within the squad.

Both Ash Handley and Richie Myler excelled against Huddersfield, with the latter coming up with four try assists, which is the most by a Leeds player this season.

I believe this is down to them being played in their favoured position, rather than being moved around due to injuries.

All players deserve a mention as everyone put in an impressive performance, but lastly I wanted to mention Sam Walters. He looks like someone we could have build our forward pack around for years to come and it is a real shame we couldn’t convince him to stay.

Beating a poor Huddersfield team is not going to fix all our problems, but it is a step in the right direction.

The fight and passion on show from the team is what was needed after the Wakefield loss and a lot of players proved that they want to play for the badge, not just the paycheck. Hopefully this provides a platform for us to kickstart our season, but I have said this multiple times and we’re still inconsistent so I’m not holding my breath.

After their loss to Castleford, Warrington will be in a similar position to us last week and will be wanting to right the wrongs of the disappointing result.

However, they are going through their usual mid-season implosion and if we carry on where we left off against Huddersfield, I can see us picking up the two points on Thursday.

JOSH JACKSON

After our last dreadful performance and a break when the Challenge Cup was played, nobody really knew what to expect against Huddersfield last Friday.

You could say it was a must-win for both teams to keep their play-off hopes alive and there was real emotion around the ground with the game being dedicated to the Burrow family, which was a wonderful spectacle.

It’s not often we say it, but we started brilliantly with an early try which really got us going. Our hard running and great intensity proved too much all game for a terrible Huddersfield side.

There were some really impressive performances especially from Blake Austin and Sam Walters. David Fusitu’a also came back with a bang. However if the team don’t build on this performance, then it doesn’t really stand for anything.

Thursday will be a good chance to kick on against a Warrington side who have just lost their way recently.

SAM BROCKSOM

Back to winning ways and in spectacular fashion, Rohan Smith and his team have given us all a little bit of hope that we can put this poor run of form behind us.

Mind you, the result against Giants will count for nothing if we don’t perform the same against Warrington this Thursday.

The return of David Fusitu’a and Aidan Sezer boosted us massively. Yes they haven’t been great this season, but their presence was definitely felt and played a crucial role in the performance.

Sam Walters had his best game of the season, as did Mikolaj Oledzki. Yes, Huddersfield were appalling, but take nothing away from our forwards setting a strong platform for the backs to work their magic.

James McDonnell improves week on week and is without doubt our best signing of

2023.

We move on to a very out of form Warrington side, but a side who hammered us in round one. We need to avenge that performance and with the possible return of Nene MacDonald, I see no reason as to why we can’t beat Wire and start a play-off push.