Leeds 72-10 Barrow: Moon treble eases Rhinos through to quarter-finals

Moon crossed for a hat-trick against Barrow

Joel Moon grabbed a first-half hat-trick as Leeds eased into the quarter-finals of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup with a 72-10 win over competition minnows Barrow.

The Betfred Super League giants virtually assured their place in the last eight draw with four tries in the opening 17 minutes, and went on to score 13 against their Kingstone Press League One opponents.

Moon's treble was supplemented by tries from Matt Parcell, Ash Handley and Ryan Hall before half-time, while Barrow's sole and much celebrated first-half reply came through winger Luke Cresswell.

Handley, Stevie Ward, Liam Sutcliffe, Robbie Burrow (two), Parcell and Galloway added further tries after the break, while Sutcliffe added 10 successful conversions.

Jarrad Stack crossed for the Raiders in the second half and Karl Ashall's goal took them into double figures.

It was 60 years, almost to the day, since the Yorkshire side had edged the 1957 final 9-7 at Wembley but drastically different fortunes in the intervening years meant another close encounter was always highly unlikely.

Barrow began round six as the lowest ranked side in the competition, but had won each of their last 13 games.

The Barrow coach was held up in traffic, which forced the start to be put back to 3.10pm at Headingley.

The Rhinos class shone through early as Moon skipped easily in between the visitors' defence to score in the third minute.

Leeds were soon on the scoreboard again as Tom Briscoe broke down the right-hand touchline before sending Parcell behind the posts to score again.

Handley added a third try in the corner and after Brett Ferres, back following a six-match suspension, spilt the crucial pass when a fourth looked likely, Moon exchanged passed with Sutcliffe to give his side a 22-0 lead.

The biggest cheer of the afternoon, led by around 1,000 travelling Raiders fans, was reserved for Cresswell when he dived over in the right corner after being put in the clear by Ryan Fieldhouse's long pass to open Barrow's account.

But despite the sin-binning of Keith Galloway for an off-the ball challenge on Karl Ashall, Moon soon claimed his hat-trick and 13th try of the season.

Hall, returning from England international duty, then ran out of defence to score a thrilling length-of-the-field touchdown two minutes before the break.

Danny McGuire dummied through and put Handley in for his second score early in the second half, before Moon turned creator for Ward to race through and touch down.

Sutcliffe then touched down while Burrow's two tries sandwiched efforts from Parcel and Galloway as the part-timers tired.

But their fans did have something else to cheer as a Jarrad Stack try and fine Ashall goal from the touchline gave Barrow late consolation, and their attention now turns to next week's trip to Canada to face Toronto.