YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith reflects on Leeds Rhinos' 38-0 defeat at table-topping Wigan Warriors.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Here at the Brick Community Stadium Wigan have hammered Leeds 38-0. Remarkably Rhinos
00:08are still in the hunt for a top six spot. Other results have gone their way with Lee
00:14losing to Hull KR but it will take a massive improvement for Leeds to get into the six
00:19and to be honest tonight's game really showed where they are. They're not at the same level
00:25yet as Wigan who were a cut off from the start. Leeds got off to a terrible start 10-0 down
00:31after as many minutes and they were never going to recover from that really. They did
00:35actually dig in and have a decent spell for 20 minutes. They were competitive for parts
00:40of the game but Wigan were too good in every department. Leeds fell back into some old
00:46habits, bad old habits, conceding costly penalties, there were three in the first 20 minutes and
00:52making errors. One just before half time when they only trialled 10-0 and they'd probably
00:57been pretty happy to go in at the break 10-0 down but they made an error and Wigan scored
01:01on the final play of the half. Second half again a couple of penalties led to an early
01:07score from Wigan and from then on it was just demonstration from Leeds and they didn't particularly
01:12manage to do that unfortunately. There were some positives I thought. Young Alfie Edgel
01:1820-year-old playing only his second start at Fulbright which is his specialist position
01:23I thought and he had a good game, dropped one kick but other than that was safe and
01:27showed some good signs and rightly so. He came in for his third Super League appearance
01:32on the wing and I thought he was absolutely excellent. Some strong tackles, really willing,
01:37tried to take some good carries and had a couple of good runs. One in particular got
01:43the Leeds fans on their feet so he's a real prospect for the future. Leeds now have to
01:48go to Hull KR and win next week to have any chance of securing a place in the top six.
01:57It's doable but really it's going to take something special for Leeds to go there and
02:02get anything positive out of the season so a really disappointing night for them. Good
02:07thing though, the line-nose women had a good win over Wigan in the current race of 24-4
02:13but other than that it's not been a great night for Leeds.