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Aaron Bower

Remembering the last Leeds Rhinos team to beat St Helens almost five years ago

It's been that long since Leeds Rhinos registered a win of any kind against St Helens, the Saints weren't even Super League champions the last time it happened.

Rohan Smith's side cross the Pennines on Friday evening looking to end a remarkable run of 12 consecutive defeats against the current Super League champions. That run dates all the way back to the early weeks of the 2018 season, the last season which didn't end with the Saints lifting the Super League trophy at Old Trafford.

That night, Brian McDermott masterminded a 28-20 victory against a Saints side featuring a glut of the players who are still at the heart of their success today. The Leeds side however, is very different indeed.

Read more: Wakefield Trinity game with Huddersfield to go ahead as planned after pitch passes inspection

Only four of the 17 that took to the field at the Totally Wicked Stadium that night are still Rhinos players. Two of them were try-scorers on that evening in March 2018: Richie Myler and Ash Handley. Handley was playing centre that evening, and Myler was at half-back: they will both be in different roles come this weekend.

Myler partnered Joel Moon in the halves with Ashton Golding playing fullback, while Handley was in a three-quarter line that included Ryan Hall, Tom Briscoe and Kallum Watkins.

The other two survivors from that night started on the bench, forwards Cameron Smith and Mikolaj Oledzki. The latter will be unavailable to the Rhinos on Friday evening, but Smith will no doubt have a pivotal role to play.

Leeds' starting pack consisted of Anthony Mullally, Matt Parcell, Brad Singleton, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Carl Ablett and Brett Delaney. Smith and Oledzki were on the bench with Jack Walker and Josh Walters. Mullally and Parcell were on the scoresheet as Leeds secured two vital points in the race for the play-offs.

But since then, it has been a grim run of results for the Rhinos against a side they were once regular victors over. That run of 12 consecutive losses includes the most recent meeting in last season's Super League Grand Final, as well as a string of losses both home and away in the Super League regular season.

Can they make it 13th time lucky on Friday? Or will that streak continue?

St Helens 20-28 Leeds Rhinos - Friday 16 March, 2018

St Helens: Barba, Swift, Makinson, Percival, Grace, Lomax, Richardson, Amor, Roby, Thompson, Peyroux, Taia, Wilkin. Subs: Fages, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Douglas, Lees.

Leeds: Golding, Briscoe, Watkins, Handley, Hall, Moon, Myler, Mullally, Parcell, Singleton, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Delaney. Subs: Walker, Smith, Oledzki, Walters.

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