Rhyse Martin gets 9, but there's also a 3 in Peter Smith's Leeds Rhinos player ratings from 21-20 win at London Broncos

As at AMT Headingley in the home fixture, in July, Leeds were lucky to get the win - 21-20 this time - after a wretched performance. London were inches away from a fourth victory of the campaign, but Oli Leyland hit a post with a conversion attempt after 75 minutes and Jack Campagnolo’s drop kick bounced off the crossbar in extra-time.

He missed three times in the added period - to Croft’s once - before Leeds’ stand-off kept his never to land the winner with 66 seconds of the extra 10 minutes left. That was the only Leeds point not scored by Rhyse Martin, who grabbed a hat-trick of tries, three conversions and a penalty to pass 1,000 points for Rhinos.

The wins means they are still in still in the top-six hunt, but only just. If they play like this in their final three games, it won’t happen.

Rhinos seemed to be competing with each other to see who could concede the most ridiculous knock-on or penalty. They got into a winning position twice, at 14-6 and 20-16 with five minutes left, but lacked composure and smarts. Tapping kickable penalties - three times - also backfired. Leeds aren’t a team who can turn down easy points.

There weren’t many positives. Lachie Miller had a good game at full-back and Martin, obviously, did all he could, but apart from that it was very poor fare. Jack Campangolo caught Rhinos napping from first receiver after just six minutes for a try which Leyland converted. That came after Leeds had been penalised twice in London’s opening three sets.

Rhinos hit back with a try in the set from their first penalty, on 10 minutes, Martin taking advantage of a rebound off a defender to pick up and touch down from Croft’s kick. The second-rower also added the extras and kicked a 25th-minute penalty after a high tackle on James Bentley in front of the posts.

They had taken a tap in a similar situation a few moments earlier, only for a knock-on by Jarrod O’Connor to end their attack. When Bentley was tackled high again, in almost the same spot, Leeds took a tap and the number 11 knocked-on, after Matt Frawley had almost forced his way over.

London, though, were finding it increasingly tough to get out of their own half and Rhinos struck six minutes before the break, Martin running on to a smart kick from Frawley and then bringing up his 1,000th point for Leeds with the conversion.

Rhinos had done really well to come back from 6-0 down to lead 14-6, but then - as happens far too often - they did something daft, twice. They survived a set on their own line after a late tackle by Tom Nicholson-Watton on Campagnolo, but Paul Momirovski lost the ball on the first tackle following the hand-over and Emmanuel Waine scored on the last play of the half from Campagnollo’s kick, which cannoned off defender James McDonnell’s heel. Leyland’s second goal cut the visitors’ half-time lead to 14-12.

Referee Marcus Griffiths thought Hakim Miloudi had scored just two minutes into the second half, but video assistant Liam Moore spotted he had been tackled into touch by Momirovski and Miller. That came seconds after Waine was held up over the line, another decision which was referred on, as no try that time.

Bentley and Cameron Smith were held up over London’s line and Momirovski knocked-on as he tried to touch down. The latter was on Moore’s say so, in agreement with Griffiths, as was an offside penalty against London’s Josh Rourke when he touched down Campagnolo’s kick.

From that, Andy Ackers - just back on - joined in the knockonathon and this time Broncos made it count as Lee Kershaw, who trained with Leeds in pre-season, touched down at the corner for an unconverted try. There was no conversion and Leeds got back in front with 17 left when Martin completed his hat-trick, from Croft’s pass and tagged on the two.

But with five minutes left, David Fusitu’a was penalised near London’s line and in the resulting set Kershaw offloaded to put Ethan Natoli in to equalise. It looked like a fantastic effort from Miller had tackled Kershaw into touch just before he got the ball away, but it went to the video ref as a try and was awarded on that basis. As Plough Lane held its collective breath, Leyland’s kick hit and upright and both teams failed with attempted one-pointers in normal time. The penalty count finished eight-all (five in the first half).

London Broncos: Rourke, Kershaw, Natoli, Bassett, Miloudi, O Leyland, Campagnolo, Kennedy, Davis, Butler, Lovell, Adebiyi, Stock. Subs Waine, Tison, Bienek, Jones.

Leeds Rhinos: Miller, Fusitu’a, Momirovski, Newman, Edgell, Croft, Frawley, Lisone, Ackers, Sangare, McDonnell, Martin, Smith. Subs O’Connor, Bentley, Donaldson, Nicholson-Watton.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths (Widnes).