Maika Sivo took his season’s tally to 22 tries as Leeds weathered a fightback in Toulouse to climb again to the highest of the Betfred Tremendous League desk with a 48-24 victory in France.
The Rhinos, who at one level led 30-0, had been forward inside three minutes when stand-off Brodie Croft made the a lot of the Toulouse defence’s failure to take care of Jake Connor’s kick, and the scrum-half added the conversion.
Winger Sivo was handed a Seventeenth-minute walk-in within the nook by Ash Handley’s fast fingers, and centre Harry Newman powered his approach over 5 minutes later with Connor changing each to make it 18-0.
Fergie McCormack made no mistake after full-back Cesar Rouge had spilled one other excessive ball from Connor, who duly obliged with the extras, and Newman repeated the dose seven minutes earlier than the break after Luke Polselli had faltered beneath one other aerial assault with Connor heading in the right direction as soon as once more.
Nevertheless, the hosts diminished the deficit on the stroke of half-time when Rouge’s line break allowed Thomas Lacans to go over, and Jake Shorrocks’ kick made it 30-6 on the break.
The French aspect clawed their approach to inside 18 factors when Polselli collected Benjamin Laguerre’s kick-through inside seconds of the restart and Shorrocks made it two from two from the touchline.
Lacans went over with 48 minutes gone to additional enhance Toulouse’s hopes of an unlikely comeback, they usually had been proper again in it six minutes later when Laguerre accepted Polselli’s move and went over within the nook after McCormack had knocked on, with Shorrocks once more heading in the right direction.
Sivo steadied Leeds’ nerves when he claimed his second of the evening earlier than Chris Hankinson and alternative Cameron Smith made certain with their aspect’s seventh and eighth tries respectively as time ran down, Connor sustaining his good document with the boot to complete with 16 factors.
Requested what he was considering when Olympique received again to inside six factors, Leeds head coach Brad Arthur instructed Sky Sports activities: “I was excited about the challenge.
“They had been enjoying with vitality, every little thing was sticking and the bounce of the ball was going their approach, so I used to be actually excited to see, ‘righto, the place are we at? How can we get again on prime of this sport? Can we present some composure or will we panic?’.
“Full credit to the boys, they showed composure, led by Jake (Connor), and we didn’t panic, and that just shows another evolution in our game and a bit of growth in our game.”
Toulouse head coach Sylvain Houles mentioned: “Obviously when you play Leeds Rhinos and it’s 30 points, the gap, to come back is always tough.
“It has been the identical story after we are enjoying these top-six groups. I have a look at the Wigan sport, Hull KR video games – we all the time fall down and attempt to come again, and we do. We handle, we’re courageous, we struggle arduous, we present plenty of resilience, however we want to verify we do not fall that far.”
2026 Super League – key dates and what to look out for
- Magic Weekend: July 4-July 5
- Rivals Round reversed: July 23-July 26
- Elimination Play-offs: September 19-September 20
- Play-off semi-finals: September 26-September 27
- Grand Final: October 3, Old Trafford
Sky Sports will again show every game of the Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining five matches each week shown on Sky Sports activities+
