Brian McDermott was a relieved man after watching his Leeds side score 28 points on the bounce to beat Catalans Dragons in Perpignan. The Rhinos slugged it out with their hosts and were coming off worse at 22-10 down, but fired up midway through the second half and got the job done 38-22 to hit the front in Super League.
“It was a see-saw game, we took the lead, then Catalans took the lead, then we retook it again before they could have won it at the end,” McDermott said before heading back to England.
“I didn’t feel confident that we would get back into the game when we did. Sometimes when Catalans are in that frame of mind and they play the way they do they are hard to stop and you get some of their halves and the young full-back on the end of some of their moves.”
McDermott’s men were off the pace for a large chunk of the game but eventually fired up and were able to run in seven tries. The first of them opened the scoring for the match as Carl Ablett stepped through a gap to dot down, with Liam Sutcliffe adding the extras.
The Dragons, back home after a horror road trip to Hull, then responded as Elliott Whitehead took in a pass from Scott Dureau to force his way over, with the creator adding the extras.
Leeds made sure they led at the break, though, with Stevie Ward going through Benjamin Garcia to open his account for the season. Catalans ran hot at the start of the second half, scoring twice in quick succession to leave Leeds reeling. Former Bradford man Whitehead got the first and then Eloi Péllissier skipped in from dummy half.
The game looked to be getting away from the Rhinos, especially when a fourth Catalans try arrived as Damien Cardace went in at the corner, leaving the score at 22-10. That was Leeds’ cue to fire up, though. The forward Brad Singleton, proving a handy try-scorer in 2015, crashed on to a Rob Burrow pass to touch down and then Danny McGuire, captain for the day, went in after fine link-up play between Joel Moon and Ryan Hall.
Two conversions by Sutcliffe left it at 22-22 and Catalans had no answer to the flow of points. They fell behind in unfortunate circumstances as Sutcliffe’s grubber kick reared up off the turf and left Willie Tonga slapping the air, with Sutcliffe following up to score.
That broke the home side’s resolve and things were finished off soon after as Kallum Watkins took in a Burrow break to score and then Zak Hardaker scored after a short drop-out went wrong.
