How Leeds’ season came to an end as key moments in St Helens loss dissected including poor game-management

Leeds Rhinos’ season came to a shock end on Saturday evening as they were dumped out of the Super League play-offs by St Helens in the most dramatic scenes possible.

The Saints scored a remarkable try after the full-time hooter courtesy of Shane Wright to progress through to the semi-finals next weekend.

As for Leeds, an encouraging year under Brad Arthur is now over. Here’s the key areas where we felt they lost the match..

Poor game-management

Leeds’ half-backs have rightly had plenty of praise showered upon them throughout 2025, but in the closing stages here, you would have expected a little bit more.

Whether they thought the job was done, only they will know. But eight points ahead with mere minutes remaining, the Rhinos simply had to shut it down and close the game out. Kick long, complete hard and force a pretty timid St Helens side to come from deep and do the impossible.

The Saints deserve credit for what they did late on, of course. But Leeds certainly gave them a helping hand.

The Ash Handley no-try

It’s paled into insignificance now given what happened after that, but there was a huge moment in the early stages of the second half when Leeds looked to have pulled into a huge lead.

Ash Handley cut through to touch down just wide of the posts, and that would have given Jake Connor a simple conversion to make it 18-6. But the decision was reversed after Jonny Lomax successfully challenged it, claiming he was impeded in the defensive line by a Leeds runner.

It was a 50-50 call, and one which kept the Saints very much in the fight. On another night, it would have gone another way. Had it been given, it was hard to see a way back for Paul Wellens’ side.

Too much wasted ball

Leeds had more than enough chances to finish St Helens off long before they went 14-6 up, but they were far too profligate and wasteful with ball in hand.

The Rhinos’ error count was into double figures on Saturday night; it is rarely, if ever, that high under Arthur. Too often they tried to score the crucial try with every play rather than retain a bit of composure in key attacking positions.

It was unlike what we’re used to from a Leeds team in 2025. And ultimately, it proved to be their undoing.