Salford Red Devils 22, Leeds Rhinos 16: YEP video review

The YEP's rugby league scribe Peter Smith reflects on another defeat in a dismal season for Leeds Rhinos.

Transcript

00:00Well, the sun is setting here at Salford Stadium and I think it's already set on Leeds Rhinos' top six chances.

00:09Beaten 22-16 by Salford here today, that leaves them four points adrift of the playoffs.

00:17And at this stage of the season, with a very tough run in, it's hard to see them closing that gap,

00:23particularly when the team immediately above them are St Helens, who will certainly pick up some points over the last few games.

00:29Leeds have a very tough run in, starting with Wigan next Saturday.

00:33I suppose now it's just a case of giving it their best and seeing where they end up,

00:38but a very disappointing season it's been overall and today summed that up really.

00:4412-0 up after nine minutes, admittedly both Leeds' tries coming against 12 men.

00:50They got another one to go 16-6 up with about 25 minutes gone and then didn't score after that.

00:57Had a chance, I thought they made a mistake by not taking a penalty goal at 16-6,

01:02which would have given them a couple of scores cushioned, but they didn't take that.

01:07You've got to admire in a way their adventure, but it didn't pay off.

01:12They made a soft error at the play of the ball in that set and that's what again killed them.

01:17They gave away far too many penalties, conceded some really soft errors at times.

01:21A couple of players it looks to me like are playing injured.

01:25Michaledski, for example, was clearly struggling towards the end.

01:29Dashan Lee, who's been outstanding this year, Leeds' best player by far.

01:33I thought he was struggling at times, looked very hesitant on the kicks, which is unlike him.

01:38They were one of two positives, I thought like him they were a decent game at full-back.

01:43James Macdonald impressed again, but really it was a case of Leeds shooting themselves in the foot.

01:49After 12-0 up that early on, they should have won this game.

01:52They weren't really in it in the second half, I didn't think.

01:55It created some late pressure, but I never felt that they were going to score.

01:59And Salford, you have to say, deserved the win.

02:01They celebrated it like they'd won a cup final.

02:03The players were still out there, a good ten minutes after the game finished.

02:07A big win for them, but for Leeds it just leaves them with the run in now,

02:14the final quarter of the season and nothing really to play for other than pride.

02:18Let's see if we can get some of that back over the next few weeks.