Rugby League: Leeds trump card Jackson swings game

Bradford Bulls 10 Leeds Rhinos 23

LEEDS WERE staring defeat in the face after 20 minutes of yesterday's Silk Cut Challenge Cup semi-final in Huddersfield, before a trio of poachers' tries took them to Wembley and gave them a payback for two semi-final defeats by Bradford in the past three years.

Ryan Sheridan, Marcus St Hilaire and Iestyn Harris picked Bradford's pockets as Leeds grew stronger and stronger as the game went on. It was an outcome that was all the more remarkable after an opening in which they seemed determined to sabotage their chances.

Hyped up to excess and playing in a red mist, they conceded far too many penalties, made too many mistakes and were duly and swiftly punished when James Lowes and the effervescent Robbie Paul created the first try for David Boyle.

With Steve McNamara in the sin bin alongside Anthony Farrell following a confrontation in the aftermath of that try, Henry Paul missed a conversion but Bradford remained completely on top.

They cashed in again after 14 minutes, Lowes kicking through from dummy half and scoring against his old team, despite Daryl Powell's attempts to obstruct him.

This try was converted by the elder Paul, but the turning point of the contest came on 20 minutes when Lowes and Mike Forshaw split the Leeds defence again, only for Tevita Vaikona's touchdown to be disallowed for a forward pass.

"I would have been concerned about it if it had gone to 14 or 16 points," admitted the Leeds coach, Graham Murray, who had a trump up his sleeve in the shape of Lee Jackson.

The former Great Britain hooker was introduced into the action soon after that escape and Leeds immediately found the shape and pattern around the rucks that they had lacked so badly in the first 20 minutes. The tide, so strongly against them, began to turn.

Brian McDermott was penalised for holding down Farrell and Harris kicked Leeds' first points.

Six minutes from half-time, Sheridan, such a vital contributor to Leeds' Cup run, stole the ball from Jamie Peacock in a tackle and raced away to score, Harris converting and adding a penalty to bring the scores level at the break.

"We needed something to turn the game for us," said Murray of Sheridan's opportunist effort. "That's what breaks semi-finals, doing that little bit extra. At 10-all, I couldn't have been happier at half-time."

Another day, another absorbing semi-final, one that was there to be won by either side, although it was Leeds who now had the luck of a team in control.

Jackson's telling blind-side run forced the Bradford substitute, Jeremy Donougher, to hold him down at the expense of a sin-binning. He was waiting to come back on when another substitute, St Hilaire, played a crucial hand, seizing on Barrie McDermott's quick play-the-ball to dart over.

Sheridan popped over a drop goal, but Leeds could not relax until five minutes from time when Harris twisted and wriggled his way across the line.

The next week will hardly be relaxing either, with a return fixture at Bradford on Thursday, followed by their Wembley opponents, the London Broncos, on Easter Monday.

No one should expect Leeds to take their eye off the ball. The highest crowd for a semi-final for nine years and the biggest for any sporting event at the McAlpine Stadium had seen that they are the sort of team that sticks to the job.

Bradford Bulls: Spruce; Vaikona, Naylor, Peacock, Withers; H Paul, R Paul; Brian McDermott, Lowes, Fielden, Boyle, Forshaw, McNamara. Substitutes used: Donougher, Zisti, Anderson, Jowitt.

Leeds Rhinos: Harris; Rivett, Blackmore, Godden, Cummins; Powell, Sheridan; Fleary, Newton, Barrie McDermott, Morley, Farrell, Glanville. Substitutes used: St Hilaire, Golden, Jackson, Mathiou.

Referee: R Smith (Castleford).