Twelve-try Leeds crush York to top Super League

Betfred Super League

York (0) 16

Tries: Wood, Bennison, Nofoaluma Goals: Bennison (2)

Leeds (36) 66

Tries: Lumb 3, Hankinson 2, Watkins, Oledzki, Miller, Lodge, Hall, Croft, Handley Goals: Connor 4, Hankinson 4, Miller

Leeds Rhinos returned to the top of the Super League table, scoring 12 tries including a hat-trick for Riley Lumb, to demolish the York Knights 66-16 at AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium.

In a scintillating attacking display, Lumb's early double was followed up with scores for Chris Hankinson, Kallum Watkins, Mikolaj Oledzki and Lachie Miller before the break.

Second-half tries for York trios Sam Wood, Jon Bennison and David Nofoaluma ensured the match was not a complete whitewash, but further scores for debutant Matthew Lodge, Ryan Hall, Lumb, Brodie Croft, Ash Handley and Hankinson added further sparkle to an exceptional away performance for the Rhinos.

The result leaves Leeds in first, ahead of Wigan Warriors on points difference, while York remain in 12th.

Looking for a response after last week's shock loss at home to Leigh, the Rhinos came charging out of the blocks and never looked back.

Lumb got the scoring under way with a quickfire double, benefiting first from Hall's interception and counter-attack to dot down before beating Bennison to the ball to add a second.

The winger was then in the thick of the action for the Rhinos' third try. Handley found Lumb on the wing, who only had to time his pass to Hankinson who went over untouched for the visitors' third.

Watkins then added a quickfire fourth, seizing the loose ball after Miller's kick bamboozled the York defence, before Oledzki fought his way through three York defenders to add another.

With York completely unable to deal with the speed of Leeds' attacking ball, Cameron Smith sidestepped his way round Knights' tacklers to feed Miller for the Rhinos' sixth.

Wood thought he had finally put the Knights on the board, but the score was chalked off after Watkins was adjudged to have been obstructed from making a tackle in the build-up.

After the break, Lodge forced his way over from close range before Wood finally got the Knights some points, out-jumping Croft for the ball before dotting down.

Hall then scored his ninth try of the season after being fed by Miller, before Lumb dotted down for a deserved hat-trick.

Croft, Handley and Hankinson rubbed further salt into Knights' wounds as the clock ticked down, with Bennison and Nofoaluma's late scores nothing but scant consolation as York suffered a record defeat against their Yorkshire rivals.

Leeds Rhinos head coach Brad Arthur told BBC Radio Leeds:

"We didn't come here expecting to score 66 points so I'm pretty happy with that. I thought we started with good intent, the mentality was really really good. We improved on some things we had to get right from last week.

"In the second half, maybe the mentality drifted at times, but it becomes difficult when you're already at 40 points.

"We've worked hard to get back to top of table, we've got to work even harder to stay there and the boys are not shying away from that".

York Knights head coach Mark Applegarth told BBC Radio York:

"I'm disappointed, very disappointed. I knew that we had to be on today to get a result and Leeds had to be slightly disjointed, but unfortunately for us the roles were reversed.

"As a group, we need a bit of composure when we have the ball down there and ruck control when we are transitioning the ball – until we fix those two key fundamentals of the game against big teams, we're not going to improve the scoreline that we experienced today.

"The group cares and there's some pretty ruthless lessons we're learning along the way. [Today's match] was a blueprint for us in how to manage a game of rugby league."

York: Mata'afa; Bennison, Galeano, Wood, Nofoaluma; McShane, Hunter; Martin, Inman, Va'a, Dee (c), Field, Hingano.

Interchanges: Doyle, Thompson, Sangare, Balmforth, Foster.

Leeds: Miller; Hall, Newman, Handley (c), Lumb; Croft, Connor; Oledzki, O'Connor, Jenkins, Watkins, Hankinson, Cassell.

Interchanges: Smith, Lodge, Lloyd, Holroyd, McCormack.

Referee: Liam Moore.