Hunslet 18, Leeds Rhinos 16
Leeds Rhinos academy/reserves coach Tony Smith was delighted with his young players, despite seeing them beaten by Hunslet in the Harry Jepson OBE Memorial Trophy.
Category
🥇
SportTranscript
00:00 It was so starting.
00:02 It was a kind of display really, defeat, but you'll probably learn a bit more out of it than maybe on stuff.
00:07 I'm not really bothered about the result to be fair, it's all about development.
00:13 I think we showed there tonight that we were together as a group and it was a great challenge for us against some big physical men.
00:19 So our young team I thought stood up really well tonight, so I'm proud of every tip I got.
00:24 You came here last year and said they taught us a lesson, but this year your boys looked a lot more ready for it I thought.
00:32 Yeah, 52-10 I think they were last year.
00:36 We spoke to the guys before the game to see if the scorelines were relevant, but let's see if we can put into practice what we've been working on on the training field.
00:44 We had a few injuries throughout the game as well, but I just like the way we went about this business tonight.
00:50 We stuck together as a group, we had a limited training time together and worked hard for each other, so we were pleasing.
00:56 Fair play to Huntsley for their part as well, they got the result and fair enough, that's all good.
01:02 Your guys showed some character didn't they, when they conceded very early after about four minutes.
01:07 To lead at half time I thought was a good effort.
01:10 Yeah it was, because I think we were shocked at the first 10-15 minutes of how quick they were playing ball.
01:15 It was rolling us down to the other end of the field, but obviously we got our first up contact a bit better and then from that we started to get our way back into the game.
01:24 Kai Taylor-Smith showed some good signs didn't he?
01:28 Yeah, there were quite a few, there were a bunch of players there that showed some really good signs.
01:32 It's just good to see a young player develop and improve and it takes time with young kids.
01:38 A lot of these players are still only 17 years old, so you've just got to realise how far they are away from the finished article and just starting their journey more or less.