DISASTER FOR JAMIE
More misery for Leeds’ interim coach
40 JAMIE JONES-BUCHANAN looked on in horror as Leeds’ week went from bad to worse.
The playing legend desperately needed a win to boost morale after coach Richard Agar walked away.
Instead he got a first-half disaster which ultimately doomed their chances of progressing to the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup.
The interim coach said: “Our attitude, application and discipline is just not good enough.
Hurts
“It hurts me as a fan, as someone who grew up in Leeds and as a past player but now we have got a challenge. We have got a big puzzle to solve.
“We have loads of work to do and it’s got to be hard work as well. The players have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, both talking to each other and physically.”
Leeds’ faults – and there were too many – should take nothing away from
Castleford’s win. Like the Rhinos, they came into the tie on the back of five defeats from six games and urgently needed a good display.
They delivered impressively, to book a quarter-final tie with Hull KR, to the delight of coach Lee Radford who grew up as a Rovers fan and lives in the area.
He said: “It’s a fantastic tie – it’s in my back garden! I thought the way we front-loaded was fantastic.
“I felt our attack has been coming over the last couple of weeks. Defensively we did a really good job. There were a couple of lapses in the second half but I thought overall we did really well.” Leeds’ defence was shocking in the first half, with halfbacks Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin at fault. The two senior players messed up in all five of the Tigers tries before the break and their poor defence seemed to spread anxiety.
Cheap penalties came too often and Castleford ran riot, kicking off with an early Jake Trueman try.
Terrific
Second-rower Kenny Edwards make a terrific break, brushing off Austin with ease, before passing inside to Trueman.
Centre Jake Mamo was the next to take advantage, cutting through the line embarrassingly easily.
A Sezer mistake paved the way for a third for Gareth O’brien, then Brad Dwyer was sinbinned for tripping Edwards and the Cas man put over Jordan Turner for another try.
Leeds then conceded to George Lawler before half-time. They responded through Rhyse Martin and Liam Sutcliffe. But Cas eased home with two tries from Greg Eden. LEEDS: Tries: Martin, Sutcliffe Cons: Martin (2) CASTLEFORD Tries: Trueman, Mamo, O’brien, Turner, Lawler, Eden (2) Cons: O’brien (6)