The Morning After: Catalans too strong, Tomkins different class & Leeds can hold heads high

Drew Darbyshire

The Morning After looks at three talking points from the latest Super League action.

Catalans too strong

Catalans will face St Helens next Friday after they beat Leeds 26-14 in the elimination play-offs at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday night.

READ: Catalans 26-14: Dragons face St Helens in semis after eliminating Rhinos

The Dragons were excellent from minute one to minute 80. Steve McNamara’s side turned up to play, and that they did.

The Catalans forward pack is renowned for being powerful and they got the better of their Leeds counterparts. Sam Kasiano and Julian Bousquet caused a lot of damage through the middle, while Ben Garcia is a tackling machine at loose forward.

The power between centres Israel Folau and Samisoni Langi causes a lot of problems for the opposition too. They had very strong games for the French side.

Tomkins different class

Sam Tomkins produced a man of the match display in Catalans’ win over Leeds. The Dragons full-back was involved in everything they did going forward.

The 31-year-old, who has earned 25 caps for England, has been in sensational form this season and he could be the key to the Dragons winning their first Grand Final this year.

Tomkins is just a box office player who is worth the ticket money alone. The former Wigan favourite was in his element on Friday night and was involved in a number of Catalans tries.

He is certainly putting his hand up to claim England’s No. 1 shirt for next year’s World Cup.

Leeds can hold heads high

Leeds will be disappointed they have been knocked out of the play-offs and that they won’t be at the big dance this year but they can be proud of everything they’ve achieved in 2020.

Leeds coach Richard Agar guided the Rhinos to Challenge Cup success earlier this year and they reached the play-offs so overall, it has been a good year for the club.

They’ve been a club in transition over the last couple of years but it seems as though they are returning to the Rhinos of old now.

Leeds have some of the game’s best young talent in the likes of Harry Newman, Jack Walker, Alex Sutcliffe and Mikolaj Oledzki, so Rhinos fans should be excited about the future.

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