It's the hope that hurts, deja vu, so near yet so far, monkey on the back: Leeds Rhinos talking points
Leeds Rhinos will have the winter to reflect on another near miss after their season ended one game short of Old Trafford.
The controversial 14-12 Betfred Super League semi-final loss to Warrington Wolves means Rhinos have ended the campaign without a trophy for the sixth sixth successive year and gone four years without an appearance in a final. Here’s five talking points.
1: It’s not the despair, it’s the hope. Last week was like a back comedy as first Ash Handley and Jack Bird were ruled out of the semi-final, then Maika Sivo and finally Chris Hankinson failed to get through the warm up.
Optimism at the start of the week was whittled away with every new setback and by the time the semi-final kicked off, many Rhinos fans were just hoping for a competitive performance. They certainly got that and the narrow loss was probably harder to bear than if Leeds’ under-strength side had been blown away.
The ovation Rhinos’ players were given by the South Stand after the final hooter showed the fans appreciated just how deep the team had dug. It was close to being a special night, but close isn’t good enough and that was the story of Leeds’ season.
2: Deja vu. The semi-final can be added to a long list of Rhinos matches in which a decision - or decisions - made by Chris Kendall have been a huge talking point. A year ago, for example, Rhinos’ season came to an end in a play-off defeat at AMT Headingley when Kendall, as video referee, mistakenly overturned a ‘no try’ on-field call and awarded St Helens a touchdown which got them back into the game.
Leeds are entitled to feel hard done by; the penalty award itself was extremely harsh and so was video official Liam Rush’s decision to reject Rhinos’ captain’s challenge. As Rhinos coach Brad Arthur said - in his extremely calm and measured post-match press conference - it was an unfortunate way to decide an enthralling contest.
Leeds Rhinos will have the winter to reflect on another near miss after their season ended one game short of Old Trafford.Rhinos haven’t come out on top in a knockout game against top-flight opposition since the 2022 Super League semi-final at Wigan Warriors and, obviously, they aren’t going to win anything until that hoodoo is broken.
Too often, as at Wakefield Trinity in the Cup this season, they have under-performed, but last week was different. Leeds did as well as they could with a side missing so many of their top backs. And all the nonsense about Jake Connor not performing in big games was proved just that.
Connor set up and scored a superb try and came up with what might have been one of the biggest plays in the competition’s history with his late 40-20, only for it to be - correctly - overturned on a captain’s challenge for an earlier offence. His omission from the Man of Steel shortlist is inexplicable.
4: So near…It has been a familiar story for all Leeds’ teams this year. The men, women, under-18s and reserves all fell one game short of a Grand Final appearance.
Other than the women, who lost 12-0 to York Valkyrie, all those defeats were against Warrington, with just four points separating the sides. The academy drew the final game in a round-robin play-off series and went out on points difference and the reserves were beaten by a golden-point penalty goal.
Leeds’ wheelchair side went one better, reaching the two major finals, but lost to Halifax Panthers both times. Congratulations to Rhinos women under-19s who won all 10 of their games, scoring 390 points and conceding 48.
5: Overall thoughts. Rhinos didn’t get what they deserved from a year of progress. They were the best team for much of the campaign, so - though they probably exceeded pre-season expectations by finishing second - not reaching a final was disappointing. Sadly, injuries and a dip in form occurred at just the wrong time, when it really mattered.
That said, Leeds had Super League’s top attack and meanest defence, the competition’s leading points, tries and goals scorers, a Man of Steel nominee and six players in the Dream Team, so it was, by most standards, a good year.
The next challenge is getting over the nearly-men tag, reaching finals and winning them. They’ll have to do that without at least six of the team on duty against Warrington, so there’s a lot of work to be done before the 2027 campaign kicks off.