Leeds Rhinos Jury: Why O'Connor should be starting nine, praise for ref and bring on Wigan

Jarrod O’Connor, Matt Prior, James Bentley and Liam Sutcliffe all come in for praise, along with referee James Child, but the fans’ panel weren’t impressed with Catalans’ Sam Tomkins.

Thoughts now turn to Friday’s game at Wigan Warriors and the Jury reckons Rhinos have every chance of a Grand Final appearance.

OLIVER LIMON

What a feeling!

Could the pink kit work its magic again? Leeds went toe to toe with the Dragons in a feisty encounter in the South of France.

Aidan Sezer was unlucky with a try ruled out early doors and then the game boiled over resulting in 10 mins for Mitchell Pearce.

Catalans went ahead with two penalty goals. Leeds hit back with a Liam Sutcliffe try, Zak Hardaker goaled. With perfect timing, Sutcliffe scored again on the stroke of half-time giving us a 12-4 advantage.

In the second stanza Catalans struck with a try and goal. Michael Mcllorum was deservedly sent off for 10 mins, game on.

Sutcliffe took a high ball to complete his hat-trick, the goal took us to 18-10. Gil Dudson saw red for a head butt on Sezer six minutes to go and Pearce followed with 10 minutes for dissent.

I was so proud of every man out there who played with great skill, guts and determination, refusing to be dragged down to their level of foul play and cheap shots.

Kudos to the coaching team, 80 minutes from Old Trafford. The Pie eaters will be a tough challenge, but don't rule us out yet. Marching on Together.

JOSH MORROW

One game away from Old Trafford, Who would have thought it? Not me.

That took huge character and nerve to enter a hostile environment in the south of France. I could name five or six players, but Jarrod O’Connor was immense in the middle of the pitch dealing with the giant Dragons pack and making an impact with the ball.

If he carries on this trajectory he would be my starting nine going into next year. It would be tough on Kruise Leeming, but when you stack them up, especially if Jarrod has a full pre-season at hooker, he just edges it for me.

The middle-forwards were great, Matt Prior stood up tall and made tough yards going forward. I’m happy he put in that performance as he has not been up to his past standards

That’s to be expected for a 35-year old player, but his big-game experience is huge for Leeds.

That was the James Bentley we have been waiting for, playing just on the edge of the line without losing his cool and causing the opposition to lose theirs. I look forward to seeing his clash with John Bateman and Morgan Smithies on Friday!

TOM RHODES

What a fabulous performance on Friday night compared to previous weeks. We went into

that game being dominant from the start and we are not giving in right when it matters at the business end of the season.

We made sure Sam Tomkins never got any sort of breathing space and prevented Sam Kasiano and many others from gaining ground and making us feel like we were under pressure.

A big well done to referee James Child who had a very good game, not getting pressured by the home support or the constant earache from Sam Tomkins. Also well said Rohan

Smith for pointing out Sam Tomkins’ obvious dive. Has anyone seen Phil Clarke resign from Sky Sports yet?

Now on to the next big task, an away trip over the Pennines to Wigan. After that result against Catalan Dragons, I’d hope the boys will have loads of confidence and think they can go into this game and win it.

It will be very difficult but if we work on trapping the likes of Jai Field and Bevan French like

we did at Headingley, then there’s nothing stopping us from being at Old Trafford on Saturday, September 24.

IAIN SHARP

The rest of the rugby league world is twitching after Leeds’ win in Perpignan last Friday night as they do what they do best, making a charge for the Grand Final after finishing fifth in the table.

Leeds were missing Rhyse Martin again after yet another laughable decision from the current bane of the sport, the Match Review Panel.

The MRP had their work cut out this week, dealing with the grubby antics of the French side, as well as their usual job of banning folks for something that absolutely no one else recalled.

It was reported last week that domestic suspensions will carry forward to the forthcoming World Cup, so it will be interesting to see if a sizable helping of Teflon will be administered by the MRP in the direction of the usual suspects.

We’re at the point where Leeds should fear no one now and on their day, have the potential to beat all three of the other remaining teams.

Finally, it’s not just about the men’s team. Congratulations to the women’s side and the academy for reaching their respective Grand Finals and to the Physical Disability team for winning their championship in Manchester last Saturday.

KHYA GOTT

Another great result in France for the Rhinos in difficult circumstances.

Liam Sutcliffe scoring a hat-trick in one of his final appearances for the club to get us to the semi-final was good to see.

It just shows that no matter what is happening in your future, you should be present and give it all for your current club and he did just that.

But it was a fantastic performance all round from the team, and now we are even closer to that spot in the Grand Final. Much like last weekend, we have another tough game ahead of us this week.

We’ll need to be wary of this Wigan side, but a tie against the Warriors is better than what could have been.

But also, given we have already beaten them this season and our current form, that Rhinos spirit shouldn’t be underestimated.

One game and 80 minutes away from the final, let’s go all the way and pack out Old Trafford with blue and amber a week on Saturday.

KENDLE HARDISTY

If you had told me, after the start we had to our season, we’d be one game away from a Grand Final, I’d have laughed.

Credit has to go to Rohan Smith and the players for the past few months. They have all been absolutely superb and fully deserve to be in a semi-final play-off.

Catalans away is never an easy game, made even tougher with it being a quarter-final. You could see the gap of experience in both teams when it comes to play-off rugby.

Catalan absolutely lost their heads with three sin-bins and a red card. The Rhinos kept their heads and played the situation and thoroughly deserved their place in the semi.

Wigan away for the semi-final, it doesn’t get much bigger! It’s 1-1 on the result front in the league with both teams winning convincingly at their home ground.

After many years of watching the Rhinos in play off-rugby, you know not to ever write them off and I certainly aren’t this time. Can we do it from fifth again?