Rhinos counting the cost

Brian McDermott
12 April 2012

Leeds found themselves counting the cost of their 30-20 victory over Crusaders which put them through to the fifth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

The Rhinos lost full-back Brent Webb after just two minutes with a serious "dead leg" while stand-off Danny McGuire, who went on to replace him, hobbled off 11 minutes later with a quad muscle injury. McGuire is just three games back from a knee reconstruction which forced him to sit out the opening three months of the season and is now facing another enforced lay-off.

"We are talking weeks," said Leeds coach Brian McDermott. "I don't know what's going through his head at the moment. He's been in a dark place for months and months and months."

He added: "Let's hope it's just a couple of weeks but he said he felt a pop and that usually means a tear."

Leeds also lost second rower Chris Clarkson with a suspected broken ankle nine minutes into the second half which caused further disruption.

"There was a point in time when we weren't sure who to play where," admitted McDermott, who sang the praises of veteran Danny Buderus for his defensive stint.

Crusaders coach Iestyn Harris labelled Hep Cahill's dismissal for a kick on Rob Burrow as "harsh" but was delighted with the commitment of his players.

"You expect your players to show composure and I think it's important the referee is composed as well," he said.

"I thought he needed to take his time over the decision. It was a little harsh. Did he intend to kick the player or the ball. It think he meant to kick the ball.

"We didn't get a couple of calls but I thought there was real good commitment from us. If we show that attitude and willingness to work for each other in the second half of the season, we'll win more than we lose."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in