Saints/Leeds @ Langtree Park

Saint Helens (12) Leeds Rhinos (20) 

1/3/13

Before Friday, my last experience of supporting Leeds Rhinos live was at Old Trafford for the 2009 Grand Final. On that glorious October evening, Captain Kevin Sinfield led his team to a tight 18-10 victory over arch rivals Saints. With that memorable performance, Leeds made the record books by becoming the first Super League club to win the championship three years in a row.

Despite happy reminiscing, the atmosphere approaching Langtree Park (and the ridiculously large glass windows of nearby Tesco) with my partner was tense. Rhinos hadn't won away at Saints since 2008 so an upset wasn't statistically on the cards. Inside the surprisingly comfortable East Stand it became obvious that some away fans were delayed in traffic because the usual raucous din was strangely subdued.

Sinfield opened the scoring with a penalty but shortly afterwards Lomax responded with a try out of nowhere. In those early, nervy moments Leeds fans might have been forgiven for thinking another drubbing was imminent in the style of the 46-6 defeat one year earlier.

Thankfully Rhinos recovered with another penalty kick and a Ryan Hall try to take a slight 8-4 lead into the half time break. At this point, a flood of fans arrived from the West Yorkshire side of the M62 and the noise levels rose considerably.

Vitalised by the increase in supporters, Leeds rallied. Their quality passing produced two further tries from Hall and Kylie Lealuai and at 20-4 up with sixteen minutes left the game was all but over. Sloppy defending gifted Saints two tries and the hope of a comeback. Fortunately Turner seemed to be put off by the wall of noise as he missed his conversions and the chance to add further pressure.

Leaving the ground, both sets of supporters could be overheard saying they made the other side look good. On reflection, that was a fair assessment because Saints seemed out of form but Rhinos failed to punish them as much as they could have done. It was hardly a classic performance when judged by the high standards of previous encounters.

Attending live rugby league was and still is an enjoyable, positive and safe experience.   Supporting your team is much more affordable when compared to the cost of following a football team. After taking three trains and a taxi home it struck me how important the personal memories are. I witnessed Leeds break the five-year hoodoo, which will stay with me for some time to come.

Looking forward, this result should give Leeds great confidence going into their clash tomorrow with league leaders Huddersfield. There are many areas still to improve on but the passionate Headingley crowd should see them edge out a win – if their defence is on top form.

I believe fans want to see the days again of winning the league leaders shield, not battling through four gruelling rounds to win from fifth place. The players need to give 100% in the regular season to achieve this but maintaining performances like this throughout the upcoming months is a cautiously optimistic starting point.