Late charge boosts Rhinos

Burrow: rounded off the scoring in injury time

Leeds continued their climb up the Super League table as they got the better of Catalan Dragons by a 30-6 scoreline at Headingley.

The Rhinos moved themselves into fifth spot with a fourth successive win, though they had to work hard to maintain their recent good run of form.

Teenager Zak Hardaker grabbed two late tries on only his second Super League appearance to help calm the nerves amongst the home fans.

The 19-year-old's brace, plus a late score for Rob Burrow, blew open a game that had seen Leeds hold a precarious 14-6 lead with just 10 minutes to play.

Unfair reflection

The defeat is the first for the Dragons in eight matches but the final margin did not reflect how hard they had pushed their opponents during the contest.

In the opening half their best work had been done in defence, although they needed some help from the officials to wipe out an early Ryan Hall try.

The winger thought he had broken the deadlock after only a minute of proceedings but his effort was chalked off as he'd put a foot in touch.

Eventually he did grab the opening points of the contest after 20 minutes, though not before Catalan had tackled for their lives after being forced into no fewer than four goal-line drop-outs.

Having sent the cut-out pass to the left corner for Hall to get over, Leeds skipper Kevin Sinfield knocked over the conversion to make it 6-0 at the half.

Defences remained largely on top after the break until the home side doubled their lead after 52 minutes, when Jamie Peacock combined with Sinfield to get prop Kylie Leuluai through a gap for his second try of the campaign.

Hall then came close to grabbing a second with a superb 60-metre run that finally came to an end when he was bundled into touch 20 metres short.

Instead, though, it was the visitors who scored next when hooker Ian Henderson forced his way over from dummy half straight after Jason Baitieri had been held up just short of the line.

Late flourish

Thomas Bosc - back for the French side in place of the injured Scott Dureau - added the conversion to cut the gap to six points and with a quarter of the match remaining, the Dragons sensed a first ever win at the Rhinos' home.

Sinfield, though, pushed Leeds eight points clear with a penalty 10 minutes from the end before seeing his side finish with a flourish.

Hardaker, who had also scored on his debut in March, was on the end of a sweeping move involving Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Carl Ablett and Brett Delaney for his first, and then, after a break out of defence by Danny Buderus, collected Sinfield's kick into space to get another three minutes later.

Scrum-half Burrow crossed for a fifth Rhinos try in injury time with Sinfield adding the extras to take his goal tally to five from six attempts.