My favourite match - Leeds Rhinos hero Barrie McDermott remembers a Cup classic against Bradford Bulls

When the hardman front-rower was sent-off in Leeds’ opening tie at home to Wigan Warriors, it seemed Leeds’ Cup campaign - and possibly McDermott’s Rhinos career - was over.

Against the odds, their 12 men battled to a remarkable 28-18 victory and then defeated St Helens, Widnes Vikings and Bradford Bulls to reach Wembley.

The final was on a knife-edge - with London Broncos leading 16-12 - when McDermott crashed over from a tap penalty to give his side the lead 11 minutes into the second half. Rhinos went on to win by a record 52-16 as the Cup returned to Headingley for the first time in 21 years.

The Wembley try was arguably McDermott’s greatest moment, but he regards Rhinos’ semi-final victory over old enemy Bradford as his favourite match.

Remembering that Sunday afternoon in Huddersfield, as part of our series looking back at classic games, McDermott reflected: “It was the third attempt we’d had at a semi-final against Bradford.

“Bradford at the time were the standard-setters and they had some real quality players, like Henry and Robbie Paul and James Lowes, who always seemed to have a good game against us.

“His motivation was high against his former side, but collectively that was as good as we played as a team all that season. We just had a determination within that Cup competition.

“We used not winning it since 1978 as our rallying call so we were really plugged into the history of the Cup and the club’s history in the Cup.”

It was Graham Murray’s second and final season as Rhinos coach and McDermott hailed him as a “really smart operator”.

The former prop added: “He made it a bigger deal than the 80 minutes, so when you had your quiet moments in the lead-up to specific games you always had something that gave you that little bit extra.”

Iestyn Harris was Rhinos’ captain and star player at the time and McDermott added: “I can remember him being majestic on the day, Ryan Sheridan as well.

“I remember it being a really rounded performance, but Shez and Iestyn controlled it and made the difference - they speeded it up when they had to, slowed it down when they needed to and they had that game under full control all the way through.”

Getting to Wembley was a huge moment for McDermott. He said: “It was about the team, but there were some things that happened - in 1997 I broke my leg and in 1998 I was all over the place with Graham Murray and I had to work really hard to get back in favour.

“I had to swallow my pride a bit and play [on loan] at Bramley, all manner of things really and when you get the reward at the end of some of those sacrifices it makes it very, very sweet.

“I knew, having watched the semi-final the day before, the final was going to be against London Broncos and they should be a game we would win.

“Once we got over the hurdle of the semi-final, in my mind I was thinking it would just be a formality at Wembley and we should get our hands on the Cup.

“We did, but we had to work a bit harder than any of us thought we would do.”

Bulls led the semi-final 10-2 - through tries by David Boyle and Lowes and a Henry Paul goal - and were dominating until Sheridan stole the ball from Danny Peacock to score a touchdown which turned the game on its head.

The scrum-half also set up a try for Marcus St Hilaire and added a drop goal. Harris scored a try and five goals in Leeds’ 23-10 win.

McDermott remembers the celebrations afterwards as fondly as the match itself.

He said: “What Graham Murray cultivated was we work hard and we play hard.

“It’s perhaps not something the players would get a lot out of now, but back in our day we played hard, trained hard and when we had a chance to celebrate we did it together.

“It was a brilliant night - but not one I can talk about publicly!”

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