Leeds Rhinos fans blast booing of Brodie Croft, celebrate home-grown rookie in big win v Huddersfield Giants

The game was played the day after Warrington Wolves confirmed they have signed Brodie Croft for the next three seasons and Leeds’ star stand-off was jeered by a section of the 14,000-plus crowd. On the field, Rhinos were far too good for bottom of the table Giants and their third half-century of points this season lifted them back into top spot. Here’s what our fans panel made of it all.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

Leeds Rhinos returned to winning ways with an emphatic victory over Huddersfield, putting another 50-plus points past them as we returned to the top of the table. It was a ruthless performance against a poor Giants team and on another day we easily could have scored more.

While our firepower in attack will grab the headlines, I found our defensive effort very impressive. In such a one-sided game it would be easy for our concentration to drop, which it has done previously, so to keep them to nil was pleasing to see.

The only question I would raise now is why can’t we see this rock-solid defence every week? Keeping a hapless Huddersfield to zero points is wasted when we let teams like Wigan score easy, soft tries the week before. Once we get that consistency right, we will be a force to be reckoned with.

Again, the standard of opposition meant we had an easier night than expected, but I thought Fergus McCormack did well to step in for the suspended Lachie Miller. A few errors are to be expected and hopefully will be ironed out the more game time he gets, but on the whole, he stood up to the task. It is always pleasing to see solid young players get game time in the academy and hopefully he is one we can hold on to.

KATIE MARCZYNSKI

It was nice of Wigan and St Helens to do us a favour at the weekend, keeping us top of the table. I don’t have a lot to say about Friday’s win, other than it was a much-improved performance against a poor Huddersfield side. It’s always good to keep a clean sheet though.

Fergus McCormack did a good job standing in for Lachie Miller; he carried the ball well and even showed off some fancy footwork. Brodie Croft silenced the small group of ‘fans’ booing him with a solid performance and the try from Ryan Hall had me eating my words from last week.

Of the seven players who scored for us on Friday, six are either leaving or yet to sign a new contract for next year. I can’t help but feel a little nervous about our retention and recruitment for 2027. When it’s unclear who will be coaching us, it’s tricky to secure new deals, which makes me feel slightly uneasy.

I remember Brad Arthur saying he has a deadline of June 30 to let us know his plans for next season, so hopefully there’ll be an announcement from the club in the next few weeks to give us something else to smile about.

DAVID MUHL

Nothing is better than Headingley on a Friday night with the sun shining down and a big Leeds win. To be honest, Leeds never had to get out of second gear to beat a very poor Huddersfield side.

This was more of a training run than an actual match. Giants’ owner Ken Davy must have the patience of a saint and very deep pockets to continue to fork out to keep Huddersfield running. If I could offer him some advice it would be to merge with Halifax and move to the Shay. Huddersfield, certainly on this performance, are a lost cause.

Back to Leeds, they did everything they had to without setting the world alight. Debutant Fergus McCormack, one knock on apart did well, but he’ll have harder nights in front of him. The pack were on top all night which allowed Brodie Croft - who unfairly came in for some booing from a minority of the crowd - and Jake Connor to work some of their magic.

I had two players sharing my man of the match: Croft who showed us what we’ll be missing next year and Cooper Jenkins who ran hard and tackled well. I was sceptical when we signed Chris Hankinson as I couldn’t see what he would bring, but boy have I been proved wrong.

He is Mr Consistency. It doesn’t seem to matter where he plays. On Friday after doing a big stint in the second-row he moved seamlessly to centre and scored a well-taken try to boot. Maika Sivo continued his remarkable try scoring run, I think he’s scored more tries than he has made tackles this year.

We play St Helens next - who will be smarting after a surprise loss to Castleford - and then a trip to the beautiful city of Toulouse. Both games will be harder than Friday night.

BECKY OXLEY

I was uncertain about what to anticipate in the match against Huddersfield. Under a new coach I thought they might come out aggressively and provide us with a challenge. However, they seemed to remain in second gear, allowing us to return to playing some solid, clean rugby.

We were effectively passing the ball and demonstrating good positional play. We can only perform against what is presented to us and on that night we capitalized on every opportunity available.

There has been considerable discussion on social media regarding Brodie Croft and his choice to transfer to Warrington. In my opinion, only Brodie can determine what is best for himself and his family and this is the decision he has made. I respect that and I believe others should as well. He has provided himself with a great opportunity this season and continues to do so. Singing songs in the South Stand that I can’t repeat and booing him is simply not respectful.

We now have a week off for the Challenge Cup final, which allows us time to prepare for Saints. It will be a challenging match, and I am confident Brad Arthur will ensure we work hard during the break to be fully prepared.

IAIN SHARP

It’s never a good sign when the opposition team sheet contains such high digit squad numbers it looks like a ticket for the Euromillions draw. On field, Huddersfield Giants decided to mimic the recent Eurovision Song Contest and, like the usual British attempts, were lucky to get ‘nul’.

The general feeling was Huddersfield didn’t try hard enough to get stuck in traffic for so long they would have missed the game entirely. The match actually kicked off at 8.15pm due to a crash on the M62.

In the stands, there was a ludicrous situation of Leeds fans booing Brodie Croft after the

announcement of his move to Warrington for next season. It was interesting to note those fans didn’t hand out a similar treatment to Harry Newman, Cam Smith, Mik Oledzki or James McDonnell, all of whom are also undertaking the Great Escape - I had to get a Bank Holiday reference in somewhere - at the end of this season.

It’s another week off for Leeds this weekend when at least some of the rugby league circus will decamp to London for the Challenge Cup final at Wembley.