YEP Jury: Fantastic to see Leeds Rhinos back to their brilliant best at Salford Red Devils

LUKE CROSSFIELD

Now that was the Leeds Rhinos I know!

It was fantastic to see the team put that kind of performance in, early into Dave Furner’s tenure at the club. Trent Merrin was superb especially in the first half he really set the platform for us.

Konrad Hurrell was a nightmare for Salford all afternoon – he has instantly become a fans’ favourite for the way he has performed on and off the pitch.

I was happy to see Jack Walker get a well deserved hat-trick with some great creativity from our half-backs.

On to the final trip of four across the Pennines and it doesn’t get any easy with a trip to St Helens on Friday.

They are another team who are two from two after a very resilient win at Wakefield two weeks ago.

It will be a very tough evening for our forwards trying to deal with the likes of Alex Walmsley and Luke Thompson.

Our best performance last season was at St Helens and a repeat would give us another huge boost before we return home next week.

ANDREW SUTCLIFFE

Much to the delight of the travelling (again) Leeds fans, the gradual improvements shown in the first two rounds were replicated in the game against Salford Red Devils.

The home team showed confidence and were deservedly ahead after seven minutes as Leeds conceded a soft try.

Leeds forced their way back into the game with an improved defence, the back-three of Trent Merrin, Brett Ferres and Stevie Ward were impressive.

Tries from Adam Cuthbertson, Jack Walker and Konrad Hurrell all converted by Tui Lolohea gave Leeds a deserved half-time lead. The second half started much as the first, with Leeds conceding yet another soft try, (something to work on Mr Furner). It wasn’t until the last quarter of the game that Leeds let loose scoring five tries – Jack Walker having possibly his best game for some time completing his hat-trick, Matt Parcell also had an exceptional match. Next up is Saints away, never an easy game but considering they will have had a week off makes it harder still. Whoever drew up these fixtures was “having a laugh”.

THOMAS LAWRENCE

We’re off! A win at Super League’s ‘top’ club gets the tally going under Dave Furner – and was it ever in doubt?

Well, yes. After back-to-back wins Salford had every right to be confident against a Leeds team lacking confidence after successive losses.

More so when they took advantage of some poor Leeds defending to take an early lead – but this was the only glitch in an otherwise dominant display, with Jack Walker illustrating why he is rated as one of the brightest prospects in the country by scoring a delightful hat-trick.

Last week I was critical of the performances of Trent Merrin and Tui Lolohea in our opening two fixtures, but this week we got our first glimpse of what we are expecting from them. Lolohea’s kicks were devilish (pardon the pun) in orchestrating tries and Merrin really looked at home playing at 13. His ability to go forward and get the arm free to extend attacking plays caused issues for Salford all afternoon.

Hopefully this level of performance progresses into Friday’s trip to St Helens; we go in second favourites, just like last year when we ended up shocking the Saints – who knows?

OLIVER HAWKHEAD

That’s a bit more like it. I don’t think we can have any complaints about putting 46 points on the team who were top of the league.

Getting off the mark for the season was a big relief for many Leeds Rhinos fans after our start, so a result like this definitely puts the fans’ confidence back into the team.

Jack Walker’s performance was underwhelming by his standards last week but he made up for it on Sunday with his hat-trick of tries.

The forwards set a good platform allowing a noticeable second phase of play in attack for the first time this season, allowing Walker to put Salford to the sword.

It was nice to see Konrad Hurrell bag a brace and Tui Lolohea played somewhere near his true potential.

The team as a whole looked sharper, we ran better lines and restricted a very good attacking team to limited opportunities.

This was just what we needed before a tough trip to Saints, but a performance like this fills me with confidence that we can cause them some serious problems.

KATIE BURROWS

What a difference a week makes! How nice it is to be sitting here writing about a win and reflecting on a solid Leeds performance.

I don’t think Salford played particularly badly either, we were simply the much better side.

It was fantastic to see Jack Walker have such a good game, following a tough couple of weeks; it goes without saying that Konrad Hurrell was fantastic and Matt Parcell was pivotal off the bench.

Tui Lolohea’s kicking game was promising and Trent Merrin is really starting to show his capabilities.

To be honest, I thought the whole team did a great job, they look to be gelling well and really rooting for one another, which is a joy to watch. Coach Dave Furner has a difficult task in picking his team for this week, but I for one think it’s good that there is competition for places this year, and players won’t be picked on past form.

Looking ahead to Friday, I think St Helens will be too strong for us – although I’d happily be proven wrong.

As long as we give it a good go, that’ll do for me!

TIM NUTTALL

Hopefully Sunday’s win against Salford Red Devils can be a turning point and a sign of better things to come in 2019.

Prior to the game, there had been questions asked about how affective Trent Merrin and Tui Lolohea, along with a few others, had been in our opening two games.

The pair definitely had their best games for the club so far; Merrin made 153 metres and got away five offloads in a display of real leadership.

Lolohea also created two tries and kicked seven from nine with the boot.

Jack Walker was another player who had been coming in for a little criticism from some parts, but he showed some of the exciting qualities that he possesses, hopefully that will have given him his confidence back.

On Friday we complete the last leg of our early season road trip at St Helens, who rested at the weekend and will be fresh.

Hopefully, the lads can take the positives from Sunday and put in another good performance. We will have to be very good to come away with the points.