Half Century For Rhinos In Kev's Testimonial

By leedsrhinos.biz
January 14 2008

Only four thousand Rhinos fans managed to make their way into Headingley to support Kevin in his testimonial, rather embarrasing when around 45 thousand watched the exact same team win the Grand Final in October, but after the other poor pre season games, who can blame the fans for not going - Oldham were hardly a challenge.

This pre-season game was different though, with the full strength side returning to HQ to support Sinfield.

Sinfield scored 18 points as the Rhinos dominated the game, although his hometown team Oldham really did put up a great defensive effort. Included in those points were a pair of tries and five conversions. Keith Senior really did look back on form after an inconsistent 2007 season despite an early knock on as he also bagged himself a hat-trick.

Brent Webb was the first to put his name up on the scoreboard after he collected the ball from a Toopi grubber kick which was aimed towards the post and landed over the white wash. Kevin Sinfield converted.

The tries kept coming in as it looked like the Rhinos were enjoying themselves as JJB, Scott Donald and Ryan Bailey also took their chances to add more points to the score sheet.Soon after, JJB chased a grubber to score. The score was 12-0 after Sinfield added the extra points, and more to his tally.

The next try was courtesy of Scott Donald as the ball was thrown all across the field, time after time as the Rhinos kept the ball alive before a long pass to Donald on the wing saw Scott do what wingers should do - run down the line extremely fast and score.

10 minutes before the break and the Rhinos scored again, but this time Keith Senior was the man in Kevin's Testimonial shirt to score after he made his own break before passing to Donald who was in support and then, he passed back inside to Keith who dummied before passing over the line. Sinfield failed to convert.

With only 1 minute to go before the teams headed back into the changing rooms, Oldham's Nanyn managed to get the ball back from his own grubber kick before collecting it and heading over the line. Although Oldham couldn’t reach the sticks, at least they weren’t going to suffer a total whitewash.

Just before the 65 minute mark Keith Senior scored again for Leeds and completed his hat-trick after the referee Ben Thaler wiped down the tackle count which resulted in the try in the corner. Sinfield missed the following conversion.

And then, it was the perfect end for the Leeds Rhinos skipper as within the last 10 minutes of the game he scored two tries involving some of the skills that have kept him at the club for so long. The first try resulted from a purposeful run and dummy finishing over the line. The second was a simple dive over the line but still added the same amount of points to the board. Both of the tries were converted and the game finished 50-4 in favour of the Rhinos.

Next up for the Rhinos is South Sydney Rabbitohs in the Australia day challenge over in Jacksonville, Florida. Although that game will be a much bigger challenge, it has still given the players and fans huge confidence boost that the players are still fit and healthy although they have only been back at training for a week. Now for the season to begin!

Leeds: Brent Webb,Scott Donald, Clinton Toopi, Keith Senior, Lee Smith, Danny McGuire, Rob Burrow, Kylie Leuluai, Matt Diskin, Jamie Peacock, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Gareth Ellis, Kevin Sinfield (C).

Subs: Ryan Bailey, Ali Lauitiiti, Nick Scruton, Ian Kirke, Jordan Tansey, Ryan Hall, Luke Burgess

Oldham: Paul O’Connor, Gareth Langley, Danny Halliwell, Mick Nanyn, Marcus St Hilaire, Neil Roden, James Coyle, Jason Boults, Simeon Hoyle, Warren Stevens, Adam Robinson, Robert Roberts (C), Chris Baines.

Subs: Said Tamghart, Phil Joseph, Tommy Goulden, Drew Houston, Matty Brooks, John Hough

Referee: Ben Thaler

Crowd: 4,252