Rhinos charge to title

Leeds celebrate victory

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Leeds showed all their attacking qualities and their defensive defiance to beat St Helens 33-6 in the Super League Grand Final.

The defending champions came into the match as hot favourites to land an unprecedented second successive treble, but the first quarter aside, Leeds completely dominated the contest.

The Rhinos outscored Saints five tries to one on their way to a second title in four seasons, giving coach Tony Smith the perfect send-off in his final game before taking up the Great Britain reins.

St Helens had the chance to take the lead as early as the second minute after Matt Diskin was penalised for blocking Sean Long as the scrum-half pursued his own chip to the line.

But Long - starting his first game since the beginning of August after hamstring trouble - missed a relatively simple kick.

It was Saints who dominated the early proceedings and Leeds did well to hold out, particularly after Lee Smith was forced into touch deep inside his own half on the first tackle.

Platform

It took Leeds all of 14 minutes to gain their first attacking platform after Long was penalised for a high shot and when the defence was immediately caught offside, skipper Kevin Sinfield knocked over a penalty to put the Rhinos ahead.

Moments later Leeds had their first try from their first meaningful attack, a neat handling move ending with Scott Donald on the left wing and he cut inside before offloading to Brent Webb, who beat Paul Wellens with a neat sidestep to score in the corner.

Sinfield added the extras from the touchline and Leeds led 8-0.

But Saints are nothing if not resilient and hit back on 26 minutes with a magnificent try from James Roby.

Long made the initial break with a dummy in midfield and after he offloaded to Lee Gilmour, the Man of Steel was on hand to take the pass and beat Webb into the corner.

This time Long landed the kick and the deficit was just two points.

It stayed that way to half time despite a Sinfield chip and kick into the corner which Donald just failed to reach.

It was boiling up into one of the best ever Grand Finals and Saints were immediately sniffing more points when Donald knocked on playing the ball on his own 40.

Survived

But Leeds survived that scare and went up the other end to score their second try.

The St Helens defence was momentarily out of shape after Burrow broke through and Sinfield recovered his own charged-down kick, giving Ali Lauitiiti the chance to shrug off Matt Gidley and slide in at the corner.

Three minutes later Leeds were over again, Donald scoring a magnificent try from long range, completely skinning last-man Wellens with a classic in-and-out.

On their next possession Leeds busted their way down to within 30 metres and Burrow drilled a one-pointer over to stretch the lead to three scores.

Leeds had to defend tigerishly after Long kicked a 40-20 and on the next set Keiron Cunningham forced Gareth Ellis to knock on deep inside his own half.

That defensive set summed up Leeds' determination and when McGuire slanted a perfectly-weighted kick across the field and Lee Smith outjumped Francis Meli to score, their reward was guaranteed.

And still Leeds had the last word with just four seconds left, Jamie Jones-Buchanan powering over from close range.