They will face sterner tests than this, particularly from their fellow Super League sides, but this was an impressive, albeit expected, start to the battle to avoid relegation from Leeds Rhinos as they began the qualifiers with a resounding victory against the Championship side Featherstone.
Even though it is a stark contrast to their treble-winning exploits of 12 months ago, Leeds entered the second phase of the season on a run of five wins from their past six games. They also fielded their strongest team of the year, with 11 of the 17 men who won the 2015 Grand Final featuring here.
Featherstone more than played their part in an entertaining first half, trailing by 12 points at the break before the Rhinos cut loose, with some of the scenes in the second half reminiscent of a training session for the visitors, although both coaches agreed the scoreline was harsh on the part-time side.
“That first half was as tough as any Super League game,” the Leeds coach, Brian McDermott, said. “We were clinical after half-time. They were very capable, but we just had a bit too much confidence about us.”
Leeds surged into an early 10-0 lead thanks to the first of four tries for Kallum Watkins and a well-worked try for Liam Sutcliffe, but Featherstone finally managed to breach the Leeds defence courtesy of Anthony Thackeray’s try.
However, a Joel Moon try and two goals for Sutcliffe – who would finish with 26 points – pushed Leeds’s lead out to eight before a second half completely dominated by the Rhinos. The exertions of the home side caught up with them as the half wore on, with Leeds running in eight more tries.
A run of five in 16 minutes completely took the game away from Featherstone, with Watkins’s second followed by tries for Mitch Achurch, Carl Ablett, Tom Briscoe and Sutcliffe’s second.
By the time Featherstone mustered their next meaningful attack the game was over as a contest and despite having Jimmy Keinhorst in the sin bin with 14 minutes remaining Leeds continued to score points.
Featherstone came close to another try late on with Thackeray having an effort ruled out by the video referee, before Moon burst through some tired defending and Watkins, the game’s outstanding player, scored two more tries to round off a resounding performance from the Rhinos.
