The Morning After: Leeds consistency, Huddersfield blow & attendance records smashed

The Morning After looks at three talking points from the latest Super League action between Leeds and Huddersfield at Headingley.

Leeds’ urge for consistency

It’s been the talking point of Leeds’ season so far: consistency. They are consistently inconsistent in 2023.

It was another come from behind win for the Rhinos as they produced a second half comeback to win 18-17 after being 13-4 down at the break.

When Leeds are good, they are electric to watch. And when they are bad, they leak points, which was evident when Huddersfield scored two tries in the first seven minutes of the match.

There’s no doubt that the Rhinos could be a very good side if they played for 80 minutes like they do in the last 40. That’s the challenge for Rohan Smith’s side moving forward.

Rohan Smith highlights key area where Leeds need to be better

Huddersfield blow

Controlling half-back Olly Russell was an absent name from the teamsheet last night. Huddersfield coach Ian Watson confirmed afterwards that Russell had suffered a hamstring injury whilst in training.

Although the Giants have plenty of strength in depth, they are missing two of their ‘controlling’ half-backs in Theo Fages and now Russell.

What Fages and Russell are best at is guiding their team around the park and giving them a bit of direction in attack, particularly with their kicking game.

The Giants could’ve done with a Fages or Russell at Headingley. They were just lacking that little bit of direction that Fages and Russell bring.

Attendances records smashed

There were more than 13,000 in attendance at Headingley last night, which meant there was an aggregate attendance of 83,357 across all six Super League matches across the Easter weekend, beating the previous record in Easter 2019 by around 4,000.

It has been a terrific Super League season so far. I’m not quite sure why, but this season just feels different to previous years – in a good way. There’s a good vibe around the sport at the moment, so let’s hope we ride that upward curve and take it to the next level.

And another thing, it was great to see the Women’s Super League attendance record broken for the season opener between Leeds and York. A new record of 5,308 was set for the game at Headingley, which was shown live on Sky Sports.

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