Leeds vs North Queensland: Leeds blown away after battling first half as Thurston completes Aussie whitewash

Leeds, who swept all before them in Britain last season, threatened for 40 minutes to win back some pride for Super League in the World Club Series on Sunday night.

Yet, level at half-time at a rain-lashed Headingley, the depleted Rhinos were blown away after the interval as they leaked six of North Queensland Cowboys’ seven tries.

“They’re a difficult team to stop and we lost that match in the first 10 minutes of the second half,” said Leeds’ captain on the night, Rob Burrow. “You’ve got to play for 80 minutes, not 40.”

The current plight of the British champions was there for all to see on their teamsheet. Not only were they without the retired spine of the Grand Final-winning side in Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and Kylie Leuluai, they were also missing the likes of Danny McGuire, Tom Briscoe and Carl Ablett from their present squad.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, fielded exactly the same 17 that won their Premiership. The only thing in the Rhinos’ favour was the direction of the wind and rain at Headingley in the first half.

The Cowboys have the reputation of being slow starters and, for the first 20 minutes, that was the way they seemed as they struggled to adapt to the conditions.

It was Leeds who looked the more likely scorers, with one extended period of pressure, but North Queensland who took the lead with a simple pass from Johnathan Thurston to his half-back partner, Michael Morgan.

Thurston missed the conversion and then confirmed that he is capable of human error by having his pass intercepted deep in his own half by Liam Sutcliffe. He lacked the pace to go all the way, but took the tackle to retain possession and saw Adam Cuthbertson get away one of his trademark back-hand flick passes for Burrow to level the score.

With Cuthbertson the dominant figure of the first 40 minutes, the Rhinos were exceeding expectations by a wide margin.

The parity lasted only a minute of the second half, however, until young Ash Handley on the wing spilled Thurston’s high kick to present the Scotland international Kane Linnett with a gift try.

That seemed to drain a lot of the belief from Leeds, who conceded again five minutes later. This time it was a long pass from Morgan to Kyle Feldt, who had the considerable strength required to shrug off Ryan Hall.

Lachlan Coote was credited with a try by the video referee when he swooped on to a low kick from Thurston and the game had gone beyond the Super League winners. Thurston himself scrambled over and Leeds were in glaringly obvious danger of going the way of St Helens and Wigan in the first two matches of the series.

Justin O’Neill continued the punishment with two tries as the Cowboys built up a scoreline that does little for the credibility of the competition as the Australian representatives won for a fifth year running.

In between, Leeds’ Mitch Garbutt was sent off and his opponent James Tamou sent to the sin-bin for their part in a brief but wild punch-up.

It was not the sort of fight Leeds needed on a night when 40 minutes of outstanding effort was nothing like enough.

Man of the match Thurston, a one-man PR department for the game with his gifts of kicking tees and headgear to children in the crowd, praised Leeds’ effort in the first half. “We knew that they were going to come at us, but we controlled the ball in the second half,” he said

Leeds Hardaker; Handley, Watkins, Moon, Hall; Sutcliffe, Lilley; Galloway, Burrow, Cuthbertson, Delaney, Ferres, Singleton. Replacements used Mullally, Garbutt, Keinhorst, Walters.

North Queensland Cowboys Coote; Feldt, O’Neill, Linnett, Winterstein; Morgan, Thurston; Scott, Granville, Tamou, Cooper, Lowe, Taumalolo. Replacements used Kostjasyn, Asiata, Bolton, Hannant.

Referee R Silverwood (RFL)