Bruising win for Rhinos

Buderus sealed the win for Leeds

Leeds Rhinos secured their place in the last 16 of the Carnegie Challenge Cup with a 30-20 victory over the Crusaders at Headingley.

However the victory came at a cost to the Super League heavyweights, who lost key trio Brent Webb, Danny Maguire and Chris Clarkson to injuries during the match.

Leeds ran in five tries in total and although their Welsh opponents threatened a dramatic comeback, Danny Buderus crashed over with eight minutes remaining to seal the fourth round triumph.

The Rhinos lost full-back Webb after just two minutes with a leg injury while stand-off McGuire, who went on to replace him, hobbled off 11 minutes later with a quad muscle injury.

Comeback

McGuire has only recently returned from a knee re-construction which forced him to sit out the opening three months of the season and is now facing another lengthy lay-off.

Leeds also lost second rower Clarkson with an ankle injury nine minutes into the second half but they had managed to get themselves into a winning position by then and any prospect of a Crusaders comeback was ended with the 59th-minute dismissal of second rower Hep Cahill.

The New Zealander, who had scored the game's opening try, was shown a red card by referee Steve Ganson for kicking out at Leeds scrum-half Rob Burrow.

Crusaders led 10-0 inside 12 minutes and, with just two substitutes available to coach Brian McDermott for the last hour, the small contingent of Crusaders fans would have fancied their chances of claiming a shock win.

Iestyn Harris' men, who lost 34-16 to Leeds in the Super League at Headingley on Easter Monday, threatened to cause an upset when Cahill and then Hanbury touched down after enterprising kicks had left the Rhinos defence at sixes and sevens.

But, inspired particularly by Jamie Peacock and Burrow, Leeds gradually got on top and scored three unanswered tries to establish an 18-10 lead by half-time.

Second rower Jay Pitts produced a storming break to set up the position for lively replacement hooker Paul McShane to go over from dummy half and then took a pass from Burrow to race over himself.

Trademark

The pivotal moment came after half-an-hour when Hall raced back to pull off a stunning trysaving tackle on Crusaders full-back Clinton Schifcofske following a break out of defence by Elliot Kear.

Leeds made the most of the reprieve, working their way to the other end of the field, where prop Luke Burgess' offload from the tackle enabled Burrow to skip clear for a trademark try.

With Kevin Sinfield adding all three conversions, the Rhinos led by eight points and they made it 24-10 within two minutes of the re-start when Hall took Lee Smith's long pass to cross at the corner.

Kear gave the visitors renewed hope when he took Frank Winterstein's cut-out pass to score his first try for the Wrexham club but Cahill's sending-off effectively sealed the outcome.

Loose forward Peter Lupton added a fourth try for the Welsh side on 69 minutes but Leeds had the last say when the hard-working Buderus' efforts were rewarded with a try, with Sinfield kicking his fifth goal from as many attempts.