YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith reflects on Leeds Rhinos' 92-0 Challenge Cup win agianst gallant amateurs Wests Warriors.
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00:00No records broken here at AMT Headingley today, but Leeds Rhinos predictably swept aside the
00:07amateurs of Wests Warriors. 92-0 is the third highest score in Leeds' history. 16 tries,
00:1410 different try scorers, one injury concern to Jack Sinfield who hobbled off after an
00:19hour. I thought he was excellent actually playing at Hooker and then half back. Just
00:24seen him after the game and he's hopefully it's nothing too serious. Got a bit of a foot
00:28injury so that was the one concern, but he's hoping that he'll be available without a long
00:34lay-off. Other than that, Leeds got through alright. Plenty of game time, got into some
00:40of the players. Cooper Jenkins, Keenan Pelletier, for example, both making their competitive
00:46debut, looked good in the front row. Sam Lassone, very hard to hold, scored three tries, was
00:53a hat-trick for Ryan Hall. Leeds won't have learnt an awful lot about their prospects
00:57for this season from today's game, but as I say, they did a fairly professional job.
01:03Not perfect, there were a couple of knock-ons, a little bit scrappy at times, but it's difficult
01:07in this sort of game where you're tending to score in most sets. And full credit has
01:11to go to Wests, who were totally outclassed, as we all knew they would be, but I don't
01:17think many teams will come to the end of the season and try harder than the Londoners did.
01:23They put some decent tackles in. They got the body in the way of Sam Lassone, who was
01:27running at full pelt when he came on just before half-time, and they tried really hard.
01:33They came off to a stunning ovation and I think thoroughly deserved it. People say,
01:37well, this was a bit of a farce with an amateur team playing a Super League team in the Challenge
01:41Cup, but Wests certainly enjoyed it. They all managed to get through healthy, which
01:46is a good thing, and as I say, Leeds hopefully haven't come through with anything too serious.
01:52Now on to the real business next week against Wakefield Trinity in what is obviously going
01:56to be a much harder game at Headingley next Saturday, but Leeds, other than a few injuries,
02:03have completed pre-season in decent shape and I think the signs are that they're going
02:07to have a decent season this year.