Leeds Rhinos must be sick of the sight of St Helens. This was a seventh consecutive defeat here for the Rhinos and despite the most recent being just a week earlier in Super League, this one will sting a little bit more given the circumstances.
With a place in the last eight of this year’s Challenge Cup at stake, you felt that this was the opportune moment for Leeds to end not only that losing run but their own disastrous form in rugby league’s most prestigious competition, too.
Alas, old habits do not shake that easily and in the end it was a familiar story: a St Helens victory, a fourth successive exit at the first hurdle in the cup for Leeds and a result few could argue.
While last week’s defeat in Super League was a close contest for the most part, here the Rhinos were completely outplayed in almost all aspects of the contest in testing conditions Saints handled much the better. It means Leeds’s wait for a Challenge Cup victory in front of a crowd for the first time since April 2019 will go on for at least another year.
“I’m really pleased with the players,” the St Helens coach, Paul Wellens, said. “There was a psychological challenge attached to tonight, coming back to a place we won last week. It’s the Challenge Cup and if you don’t perform, there are severe consequences. The way the players handled it was first class, we were dominant for large parts of that game.”
The fact the Saints shrugged off the late withdrawal of half-back Lewis Dodd with an injury made this win all the more impressive. They were utterly dominant in the opening 40 minutes and had Dodd been on the field to lead Saints’ attack around, the tie could easily have been over by the break.
Heavy rain from the get-go made expansive rugby difficult and Jonny Lomax’s two penalties inside the opening quarter to open up a 4-0 lead underlined how points could easily be at a premium.
Time and time again the Saints pressed Leeds’s line without a killer pass to open them up and when Lomax threw a stray ball that was intercepted by Harry Newman to go the length of the field and put the Rhinos in front against the run of play, you wondered whether their profligacy in attack would come back to haunt the visitors.
However, on the stroke of half-time, a telling moment arrived as Daryl Clark forced his way over from close range despite the attention of four defenders, giving Lomax a simple conversion to make it 10-6 at half-time.
Bevan French's hat-trick helped Wigan avoid an almighty upset against Sheffield Eagles to progress into the Challenge Cup quarter-finals. Sheffield famously won the cup in 1998 against the Warriors at Wembley and looked on course for a repeat shock at half-time.
French jinked through to score after 17 minutes and Liam Marshall looked to have put the hosts in control, but the second-tier Eagles had other ideas, with Matty Marsh and Matty Dawson-Jones tries putting them two points in front. Oliver Roberts' trip to the sin-bin allowed Wigan to reclaim the lead through Jake Wardle early in the second half.
Australia's French scored two tries in quick succession to put the Super League side back in charge. Evan Hodgson scored Sheffield's third try, but Wigan ran riot late on with Kruise Leeming, Patrick Mago and Marshall completing a 44-18 victory.
Last year's Challenge Cup runners-up Hull Kingston Rovers eased into the last eight with a seven-try shutout win over Salford. Ryan Hall's first-half double set Rovers on their way to a 40-0 rout. PA Media
“The better team won today, last week I wasn’t as sure,” said the Leeds coach, Rohan Smith. “We weren’t where we needed to be. We just didn’t have enough with our defence.”
The half-time break did little to change matters, either. Leeds have adopted a more off-the-cuff style of attack this year which, when it clicks, is a joy to watch. But when they are faced with a side as resolute defensively as Saints, it can easily be quelled, as the last two meetings between the sides have shown.
Leeds rarely looked like scoring during the second half. A fairly tepid 20 minutes after half-time passed by with little incident and when the visitors put pressure on the Leeds line once again, they struck a telling blow as Jon Bennison crossed in the corner when Saints kept the ball alive on the last tackle.
With their defensive prowess at the other end, that was ultimately more than enough to book their place in the last eight: but St Helens finished with a flourish as Alex Walmsley crossed for a fourth try to put a hint of dominance on the scoreline this contest merited.
