There was a moment here, with over half an hour remaining, which perhaps summed up the current plight Leeds Rhinos find themselves in. At that stage, the hosts trailed by only eight points and a try would have brought them back into a contention against a St Helens side who certainly weren’t at their exhilarating best. A penalty deep in Saints territory offered them a prime opportunity to attack but instead of holding their nerve, Leeds panicked, shifted the ball wide on the first tackle and were bundled into touch.
That is the hallmark of a side who are low on confidence, and a quarter of the way through the regular season, in real trouble at the bottom. On the night of James Roby’s 500th St Helens appearance – only the fourth man in the club’s history to reach that milestone – the 36-year-old will have not had many more straightforward nights at the office than this, as the reigning champions inflicted a sixth defeat in seven league games on the Rhinos in 2022 without really getting out of second gear.
