Leeds see off Saints to book place in Challenge Cup final
Last Updated: 01/08/15 8:04am
Leeds have booked a place in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley following a 24-14 win over St Helens on Friday night.
Tries from Zak Hardaker and Joel Moon along with second-half efforts from Jamie Peacock and Kallum Watkins were enough to see off a Saints side that will rue missed opportunities that were created in the second half.
St Helens scored three tries of their own, through Andre Savelio and two from Mark Percival, but it was not enough as too many chances inside the Rhinos half ended up with the ball being spilled or passes not going to hand.
Leeds now wait until Saturday to find out who they will face in the final, as Hull KR face Warrington at Headingley in the other semi-final.
Rhinos started the game in exactly the kind of fashion that Brian McDermott would have hoped - within five minutes they were on the board thanks to a Hardaker try. The Rhinos seemed to attack deep inside the opposition half with each possession while Saints were struggling to break out of their own half.
The pressure finally told when Leeds kept the ball alive through Moon who drifted across the defence before offloading to Hardaker, who stepped the defence and ran in the first try of the night.
When Leeds were given a penalty shortly after, Sinfield called for the kicking tee. He slotted the kick and within no time Saints were reeling at 8-0.
St Helens were then able to settle things down, and grew into the game to the point that they were in possession deep inside the Leeds half, but each time they were close to scoring they spilled the ball.
On one such occasion, the ball was spilled right on the Rhinos try line, and Leeds took the ball up through the middle thanks to Rob Burrow, who passed inside before the ball was floated to Moon, who dummied and dived over for a four-pointer after Sinfield missed the kick.
With the score left at 12-0 and a few minutes remaining before the interval it was up to new signing Adam Quinlan to create a bit of magic for Saints. Alex Walmsley broke through the middle and offloaded to Quinlan who held the defence off with a series of sidesteps before timing a pass to the supporting Mark Percival who crashed over for his side's first points shortly before the break.
Advantage
Leeds extended their advantage by scoring early in the second half just as they did in the first, this time through the power of veteran Jamie Peacock who ran in from 30 yards out.
With the score 18-4 Saints needed to hit back and they did exactly that. First through a bit of fortune after a James Roby kick bounced off the Leeds defence and Andre Savelio nabbed it to muscle over for a try.
It was an easy conversion for James Walsh who made no mistake, but he was unable to replicate the effort when a basic draw and pass move down the right-hand touchline led to a second for Percival.
With Percival’s score it was 18-14 to Leeds and the dent in confidence began to show as mistakes crept into their game. Saints looked threatening on a few occasions but were unable to crack the Rhinos defence.
Then with 12 minutes remaining Watkins received the ball in space and stepped inside to run the perfect line to the tryline and take the game away from Saints, who were unable to come back a second time as Leeds closed the game out.
