For almost 60 minutes Leeds Rhinos and Hull Kingston Rovers looked as though they could fight out a 0-0 draw, which would have been the first of its kind in Super League.
It had been a tight first half, but with neither side looking like scoring, although the Robins probably came the closest when Liam Salter headed for the corner, only to be denied by a desperate Ben Jones-Bishop tackle, while referee Phil Bentham ruled out a Tom Briscoe try for Leeds just before half-time.
For the Rhinos fans perhaps the highlight of the first half was the return of Rob Burrow from injury, when he came off the bench in the second quarter.
In the second half Ryan Hall missed a gilt-edged chance when he dropped a pass from Joel Moon, but when skipper Kevin Sinfield, who also returned after a two-game absence, elected to kick for touch from a penalty rather than going for goal, it laid the platform for Burrow to dart over the line from dummy-half to at last open the scoring.
And then the tries began to flow, with Liam Sutcliffe and Carl Ablett adding further tries for Leeds.
The Robins replied when Josh Hodgson went over for a converted try, but Danny McGuire and Burrow added late tries for the Rhinos that, with Sinfield converting every try, gave a final margin of 24 points that would have looked highly unlikely for the first 60 minutes of the game.
A full report and photographs for this game will feature in Monday’s edition of Rugby League Express.
