LEEDS RHINOS coach Lois Forsell was full of praise for the resilience her squad showed during Saturday’s 34-24 win at St Helens.
After racing into an early 16-0 lead, the Rhinos were pegged back to 16-10 at the break, before Saints went into a 24-22 advantage with just five minutes remaining.
But late tries from Mel Howard and Ebony Stead got Leeds the win in the end, with Forsell knowing that games such as this perfectly showed what the Super Fours are all about.
“It was a really good game, and a really tough game,” said Forsell. “If either team took their foot off the gas and dropped their standards, they got punished for it, and both teams probably learnt that the hard way in that match.
“These are the games you want to be playing in though, not those where you can drop your standards and get away with it.
“But we both also showed we had the resilience to come back and get back into it, which was really pleasing.
“At 16-0 up, I thought if we keep doing this it will be a really straightforward afternoon. But we came away from some of our key areas and how we manage our game and systems and had some blips in defence and they posted points.
“That happened a few too many times and everything changed slightly, but we stayed in the arm wrestle and there were some great performances and some big efforts to make sure we got the win.
“There are some lessons there for us about concentration and game management, but the girls ran their blood to water and they stuck together as a team rather than turning round and thinking about whose fault some things were, and I am really proud of that.”