St Helens 40 Leeds Rhinos 8 - how the players rated

Most of Rhinos’ senior players were rested at the start of what could be six games in 17 days, but - after going 22-0 down before the interval - an inexperienced Leeds side matched the champions for much of the second half.

Here’s how the players rated.

Leeds Rhinos

1 Jack Walker: Solid contribution with and without the ball 7

24 Luke Briscoe: Worked hard in defence, but no attacking opportunities 6

21 Rhys Evans: Little ball, but solid defensively 6

26 Alex Sutcliffe: Eye-catching tackling effort, particularly big hit on Jonny Lomax 8

38 Liam Tindall: Caught out defensively, but scored his first senior try 6

34 Jack Broadbent: Had a dig, playing out of position 6

23 Callum McLelland: Struggled with his kicking game, but set up a try 6

28 Tom Holroyd: Solid stints, but limited game time 6

14 Brad Dwyer: Captain for the day, tried hard in tough circumstances 7

19 Mikolaj Oledzki: Used sparingly 6

27 Sam Walters: Nice assist for Tindall’s try 7

20 Bodene Thompson: Experience helped his team mates, big effort 8

22 Cameron Smith: Took his try well 6

Subs

36 Corey Hall: Brief spell, did okay 6

25 James Donaldson: Made a difference 7

33 Jarrod O’Connor: Little time, but got stuck in 6

39 James Harrison: Was targeted, but stuck to his guns 6

St Helens

1 Lachlan Coote 7

2 Tommy Makinson 7

3 Kevin Naiqama 7

26 Josh Simm 9

5 Regan Grace 7

6 Jonny Lomax 8

7 Theo Fages 8

8 Alex Walmsley 6

9 James Roby 9

15 Matty Lees 7

11 Zeb Taia 7

20 James Bentley 8

14 Morgan Knowles 8

Subs

13 Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 7

19 Aaron Smith 7

16 Kyle Amor 6

23 Joe Batchelor 6

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan) 7

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