Leeds Rhinos U18 36 Huddersfield Giants U18 28

Leeds Rhinos Under-18s ran out 36-28 winners over Huddersfield Giants at AMT Headingley, but the young Rhinos were made to work hard for the result.

Before the men’s team took to the field for their World MND Awareness Day clash against Leigh, where the club and fans joined together to celebrate the life of Rob Burrow CBE, the young Rhinos had the chance to pay tribute to Burrow, who coached the club. Academy and Reserves for three years.

Coming into the game, current Academy boss Tony Smith made four changes to the side that faced St Helens less than a month ago. After a long injury lay-off, hooker Elliott Fox made his Academy debut off the bench. Dylan Hutchinson was named at full-back in place of Joe Diskin and Joe Phillips returned to the forwards after missing the Saints game through injury. Phillips, Marcus Qareqare, Jayemm Oladipupo and Presley Cassell were all looking for big performances for the match after the quartet were named in Paul Anderson’s England Academy squad for their next game against France.

The hosts set the opening precedent with a score after three minutes. On their first attacking set of the game, light hands from Presley Cassell put Joe Butterfield clean through the Huddersfield line, but George Brown was caught by Giants full-back Logan Blacker as Brown took the offload . Rhinos didn’t panic though and slick handling proved to be Huddersfield’s undoing as Brown found a seam to break and score.

Dylan Hutchinson came close to adding a second try from a Bailey Fitzgibbon strike. Making space on the wing with an overlap, the Leeds defender looked certain to score but the desperate defense held him up. After holding Blacker over their line as the Giants looked to muster a response, the Rhinos added their second of the game; Callum Webster headed over in the corner to make it 10-0 after 20 minutes.

It was soon back to back scores for the Rhinos thanks to substitute Jayemm Oladipupo breaking through the Giants defensive line. Although the prop showed good burst, he held onto the ball well to offload teammate Noah Whittingham, who got Leeds’ third try.

Beau Morrison hit back for the Giants as the center collected Bailey Fitzgibbon’s chipped pass to power over the try line, but Leeds had the last laugh. Benefiting from ill-discipline from the Giants, Rhinos probed the Huddersfield goal line before Declan White found space to fight his way to the line. Thomas added two more conversions to send the hosts into halftime with a 22-6 lead.

A perfect start to the second half saw Leeds punish Jacob Stead’s lane as Hutchinson finally got on the scoresheet; the full back finds space to slip to give the home side a 20-point margin.

Blacker responded for the Giants but the Rhinos kept pace; Harry Smith broke through to get into the backfield and then offloaded for Whittingham to get his second of the game.

The contest settled down as both sides were deadlocked as the game neared the hour mark, but the Giants were injected by the introduction of Andrew Gill who crossed the line with 20 minutes remaining. Fullback Blacker also found himself over the line for the second time to reduce the score to eight points.

The pressure on the Rhinos soon eased and the home side took their chance as good ball movement from center backs Smith and Brown sent the ball wide to Thomas who fed Harry Taylor to score in the corner to move the score to 36-22.

A 40/20 kick from Brown was unlucky not to produce any points for the Rhinos but Leo Ward crossed for a consolation try for the Giants before the final whistle.

Rhinos U18

1. Dylan Hutchinson, 2. Harry Taylor, 3. Marcus Qareqare, 4. Harley Thomas, 5. Callum Webster, 6. George Brown, 7. Harry Smith, 8. Joe Phillips, 14. Mason Corbett, 10. Joe Butterfield, 11. Jacob Stead, 12. Bobby Hartley, 13. Presley Cassell

Subs: 14. Elliott Fox, 15. Jayemm Oladipupo, 16. Noah Whittingham, 17. Declan White (18^th The Man – Dax Millington)

Tries: Brown (3), Webster (19), Whittingham (25, 51), White (37), Hutchinson (43), Taylor (68)

Goals: Thomas 4/7

Giants U18

1. Logan Blacker, 2. Roman Sharma, 4. Matthew Hanley, 3. Beau Morrison, 5. Bailey Fitzgibbon, 6. Jack Ward, 7. Leo Ward, 8. Charlie Land, 9. Monty Lumb, 10. Patrick Houston, 11. Max Merta, 12. Archie Sykes, 13. Jacob Algar

Subs: 14. Andrew Gill, 16. Harley Firth, 15. Zach Brown, 17. Noah Broadbent (18^th The Man – Samuel Beety)

Tries: Morrison (33), Blacker (46, 62), Gill (58), L.Ward (76)

Goals: L.Ward 4/5