Leeds end Catalans Dragons' unbeaten start to Super League season
Last Updated: 11/03/17 10:07am
Leeds delivered the perfect response to last week's record Super League defeat by ending Catalans Dragons' unbeaten start to the season in style with a 46-10 win.
An open letter from chief executive Gary Hetherington suggested Brian McDermott had four matches to save his job in the wake of the 66-10 rout at Castleford, and the Rhinos showed they were fully behind their coach in a convincing victory.
McDermott, who sprang a surprise by starting Joel Moon at stand-off and Liam Sutcliffe in the second row, saw his side go into the break 14-4 up despite losing two players to the sin bin.
Adam Cuthbertson opened the scoring from Matt Parcell's offload and he returned the favour just before the break after Brayden Wiliame had responded for the Dragons.
Jimmy Keinhorst and Julian Bousquet traded tries but Cuthbertson went over for his second before Rob Burrow, Danny McGuire and Sutcliffe all crossed to complete an incredible turnaround in fortunes for the Rhinos.
Catalans would have been expecting a fast start from a fired-up Leeds and that is exactly what they had to contend with.
The Rhinos had already had a Sutcliffe try ruled out for a forward pass by Moon when Cuthbertson took Parcell's offload close to the line and reached out to touch down.
Sutcliffe converted from in front and - after Brad Singleton had been put on report for a late tackle on Greg Bird - knocked over a penalty to make it 8-0 to the much-improved Rhinos.
The hosts survived a scare when full-back Ashton Golding pulled off a try-saving tackle on Justin Horo, after Luke Walsh's spiralling kick had bounced back off the upright.
More defending was to come after Cuthbertson's sin-binning for delaying a 20-metre tap sparked a series of penalties, which resulted in a team warning.
Referee James Child followed through on his threat to send another player to the sin bin, Keinhorst the player to see yellow.
That left Leeds down to 11 men and the Dragons' pressure finally told as centre Wiliame went over out wide.
Cuthbertson returned to the field for the restart and he quickly made amends for his indiscipline by laying on the Rhinos' second try, Parcell's first in Leeds colours after showing good strength to get to the line.
Sutcliffe made it three from three from the boot to give Leeds a 10-point cushion and the Rhinos started the second half with a full complement of players after Keinhorst's return from the bin.
Keinhorst dummied his way over from acting-half and Sutcliffe converted to make it 20-4, but Catalans were back in it when Bousquet touched down next to the posts despite loud calls for a forward pass.
The Dragons' comeback was short lived as Leeds motored out of sight with three quickfire tries.
Cuthbertson powered his way over to settle any Leeds nerves before Burrow raced over from long range and McGuire finished off a fine team move for his first try since the 2015 Grand Final.
Sutcliffe got on the end of Burrow's kick to touch down and added two more goals to make it nine from nine as Leeds bounced back emphatically.
