Smith repaid handsomely for faith in Leeds youth

Leeds' bright young men formed the bridge between the generations as they finally made the club's achievement match its potential by winning the Super League Grand Final.

Leeds' bright young men formed the bridge between the generations as they finally made the club's achievement match its potential by winning the Super League Grand Final.

Of the 17 who earned victory at Old Trafford on Saturday night, only one - David Furner - was born when Leeds won what was then the First Division Championship in 1972.

Ten of the others were products of the club's youth development scheme, long regarded as the best in the game, but not one that truly delivered the goods until this season.

The Rhinos have so often stumbled in big games that it was not until perhaps their brightest star, Danny McGuire, scored five minutes from time that the prospect of a late ambush from Bradford faded into the background.

However, that would have been a colossal injustice, because Leeds were the better side throughout, playing with great intensity and applying insistent pressure for most of the match.

For the first time in the season, Tony Smith named an unchanged team, which meant leaving out several experienced campaigners, and the young men in whom he put his faith repaid it handsomely.

The winner of the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man of the match was Matt Diskin, who crowned a marvellous contribution this season with a non-stop display at hooker, including the first-half try that put his side ahead.

He is not the only one who hopes that he will be in the squad that the Bradford and Great Britain coach, Brian Noble, will name for the Tri-Nations tournament today.

Not far behind him on the night, however, was Richard Mathers, a full-back who was cool and composed in defence and frequently a handful for the Bulls in attack.

Ryan Bailey and Chev Walker are two young men whose careers were interrupted last year, and could have been ruined, by sentences in a young offenders' institution for their part in a nightclub brawl.

Leeds stood by them, welcomed them back into the fold and saw them play a full part in this long-awaited triumph, Bailey propping alongside Danny Ward, whose father, David, was in the Championship-winning side of 1972.

Most of all, though, there was McGuire. He did not have his most eye-catching game, but he carries an air of permanent menace and he was there at the end to seize on the chance to clinch the Super League Trophy.

Yet this was a victory that was tactical as much as individual. Leeds brought in Smith from Huddersfield to give them an extra layer of strategic sophistication, as well as the mental toughness they have sometimes been lacking.

The masterstroke was the way they worked on Lesley Vainikolo. The giant winger was a potential match-winner for the Bulls, but Leeds made him toil so hard that his effectiveness was blunted.

It was not that they forced him into mistakes - indeed, he was one of Bradford's better players and scored their opening try - but he was forced to do most of his work in his own half. And, all the time, up their sleeves like a concealed blade, the Rhinos had McGuire.

"I heard him say a couple of days ago that he dreamed of it and tonight he lived out the dream," said Smith, who has stewarded all the young talent he inherited so expertly.

The Bradford captain, Robbie Paul, blamed himself for the decisive try. "I consider myself a big-game player, so when you drop the ball six minutes from time, two points behind and you concede a try, it hurts," he said.

It will be little consolation, but by that stage Bradford had burned up so much energy in the constant struggle to keep Leeds out that the crucial error could have come from any of their players.

The significance of winning at a sold-out Old Trafford was not lost on the veteran Furner, playing his last game. A Manchester United supporter, he compared Leeds' breakthrough to United's 26-year wait between titles.

Everyone has talked for long enough about the Rhinos' potential as a club if they could just find the winning formula; now we will find out exactly how rich that promise is.

Leeds: Mathers; Calderwood, Walker, Senior, Bai; Sinfield, McGuire, Ward, Diskin, Bailey, McKenna, Lauitiiti, Furner. Substitutes used: Burrow, Poching, McDermott, Jones-Buchanan.

Bradford: Withers; Reardon, Johnson, Hape, Vainikolo; Harris, Deacon, Vagana, Paul, Fielden, Peacock, Swann, Radford. Substitutes used: Pratt, Langley, Parker, Anderson.

Referee: S Ganson (St Helens).