IT’S MYLE-S TOO EASY!

Flying Richie leads Rhinos charge

RICHIE MYLER punished 12-man Leigh to send the Rhinos charging into the Challenge Cup semifinals.

The scrum-half was at the heart of everything, helping set up four tries and scoring another.

But Leeds got a huge helping hand thanks to a brainstorm from Centurions full-back Peter Mata-utia.

The Samoa international saw red after only 10 minutes when he slammed Matt Parcell into the ground head first.

It ended any slim hopes the Championship side had of claiming the scalp of out-of-form and injury-hit Leeds.

The Rhinos had lost five of their previous seven games but, after Mata-utia’s red-mist moment, they had a simple task here.

Their place in the last four came at a massive cost, though, with three more players joining their lengthy injury list.

Parcell failed a concussion test and Carl Ablett and Jimmy Keinhorst both limped off in the first half with potentially long-term injuries.

First

It made life more difficult for the Rhinos, with only one interchange for more than 50 minutes, but Leigh rarely rattled them.

They scored first with a Nathan Mason try and also grabbed another first-half touchdown from Drew Hutchison.

But Leeds totally dominated this tie – played at Featherstone Rovers’ ground because Headingley was being used for England’s second Test against Pakistan.

Winger Tom Briscoe raced over within a minute of Mata-utia getting his marching orders and quickly added a second try.

The punishment continued to come thick and fast with Jack Walker, Ash Handley and Keinhorst going over in a four-minute spell.

Ashton Golding and Myler joined the first-half rout, with Jordan Lilley kicking six goals, to make it 40-12 at half-time.

Cameron Smith and Adam Cuthbertson grabbed further Leeds tries, with Centurions getting consolation efforts from Ben Crooks and Liam Hood.

Tempers boiled over late on with Leeds’ Brett Ferres and Leigh’s Jamie Acton getting sin binned and Leigh’s Matty Dawson-Jones seeing red in the last minute.