Burgess Spies Route to Success As Leeds Show Their Title Mettle

The winning margin for Leeds may have been narrow but the message they sent to St Helens and the rest of the Super League could not have been more emphatic. In dreadful conditions they restricted St Helens to a single try as they ground out a victory that lifts them four points clear at the top of the table.

They did so despite losing their stand-off Danny McGuire with a thigh injury in the opening exchanges, and the only caveat that Saints could raise was the absence from the start of their veteran hooker Kieron Cunningham, who would surely have relished these conditions.

Leeds scored only one try in each half, neither of them spectacular as driving rain prevented the spectacle expected from the league's best two teams. Ali Lauitiiti charged over in the first half and, after Paul Wellens had briefly raised Saints' hopes by giving them a 10-8 lead early in the second, the young Rhinos prop Luke Burgess powered unstoppably over for the winner from close range.

Burgess has spent the past 18 months in the substantial shadow of his elder brother, the Bradford and Great Britain prop Sam, but his performances since emerging in the Rhinos first team suggest that he too will press for a place in England's World Cup squad.

Leeds could have hardly made a better start than securing a 2-0 lead through Kevin Sinfield's eighth-minute penalty. Saints went close when their stand-off, Leon Pryce, threw a dummy and plunged for the line but he was stopped inches short and forced into a double movement spotted by the video referee.

The Rhinos defence persuaded Saints to kick for goal when they were awarded a penalty in a good attacking position, and Sean Long duly equalised. A high tackle by the Leeds prop Ryan Bailey then provided Long with a chance to nudge the home side in front.

Leeds offered a greater attacking threat, as they showed on a rare raid into Saints' territory courtesy of a stupid penalty conceded by Willie Talau. The hooker, Matt Diskin, drew several St Helens defenders out of position and sent Lauitiiti charging through a large gap to score without a hand laid on him. Given the conditions Sinfield's conversion from wide was remarkable. Saints reduced the deficit with Long's third penalty in the 31st minute but the veteran scrum-half missed two further chances with the wind at his back as the game became increasingly scrappy.

Leeds almost wrapped the game up two minutes into the second half when their wing Scott Donald, who signed a one-year contract extension in the morning, was denied a try by the video referee. Instead Saints showed their fighting spirit when Wellens took a clever pass from Pryce to dive over on the left, but Long was unable to convert and it was an error by Wellens of all people which handed Leeds the position for Burgess's clincher.

St Helens Wellens; Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli; Pryce, Long; Graham, Roby, Hargreaves, Gilmour, Flannery, Bennett. Interchange Cayless, Wilkin, Clough, Fa'asavalu.

Leeds Rhinos Webb; Hall, Ellis, Senior, Donald; McGuire, Burrow; Leuluai, Diskin, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Lauitiiti, Sinfield. Interchange: Bailey, Scruton, Burgess, Worrall.

Referee A Klein (Silsden).