Leeds Rhinos underlined their Super League title credentials with another eye-catching and entertaining victory, this time against third-placed Leigh to climb above the Leopards and close the gap on second-placed Wigan.
The Rhinos have made enormous strides under Brad Arthur in 2025 and after languishing in mid-table for much of the last few seasons, look entirely capable of at least challenging for the Grand Final for the ninth time in the summer era.
Led by an imperious display from Jake Connor here, who put in another performance to suggest he should be in contention for the England squad in this year’s Ashes, Leeds were far too good for a Leigh time that although were below-par themselves, had no answer for what the Rhinos threw at them on occasions here.
Most of the pre-match buildup had been about the battle between Super League’s two most creative players in 2025, Leigh’s Lachlan Lam and the Rhinos’ Connor. And it was Connor who struck first after five minutes with a wonderful kick to allow Kallum Watkins to open the scoring.
The Leopards replied when Isaac Liu capitalised on a rare Leeds error to force his way over but the Rhinos soon responded, and in some style. Harry Newman’s half-break was halted by a Leigh defender but the centre’s offload to Lachie Miller was sublime, allowing the full-back to score from inside his own half.
Leeds thought they had a third try of the evening when Alfie Edgell appeared to miraculously touch down in the corner under pressure, but he was ruled to be in touch. And two minutes later Leigh had reduced the deficit as a fine team move led to Keanan Brand crossing.
Gareth O’Brien couldn’t convert though and as half-time approached, Leeds put daylight between the sides for the first time with two wonderful tries. Cameron Smith’s fine solo effort was then followed by Newman’s finish in the corner after a superb break from Brodie Croft.
Connor converted both, and despite the game being in the balance for large stretches of the half, the Rhinos had suddenly forged a 14-point lead to take control.
The see-saw nature of the game continued after the break when O’Brien claimed a fine offload from Umyla Hanley but Leeds would then emphatically settle matters with a blistering five-minute passage of play that yielded two more sensational tries.
First, Newman claimed his second after Ryan Hall’s clever work to pat back a Miller kick before an incredible pass from Connor sent Kallum Watkins away, and he dummied past O’Brien to make it 36-14, with Connor duly obliging from the tee for the sixth successive occasion.
The Leopards, to their credit, pushed for points until the end. Brand would complete his hat-trick with two tries in four minutes but either side of that brace, Leeds had scored two of their own through Tom Holroyd and Mikolaj Oledzki, the latter after yet another sensational assist from Connor.
There was one more late try for Leigh, this time Hanley claiming a Ben McNamara kick, but this night belonged to Leeds.