Magic Weekend: Desperate Leeds cling on for crucial win over London

Leeds Rhinos have celebrated some momentous victories in huge settings, but the celebrations at full time here underlined the significance of their 24-22 win over London Broncos.

Rightly or wrongly, this game had been billed as perhaps Leeds’s most important of the modern era – an opinion intensified by Hull KR’s 22-20 victory against Salford earlier in the day, which guaranteed the loser would be cut adrift at the bottom. The Rhinos, as on several occasions this season, made hard work of it:, but in the end it was job done.

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Their five tries were just about enough to get past London and move them two points clear of the Broncos. In what has been a season of despair for the eight-time Super League champions, that they hung on in a frantic final five minutes suggests this was a step forward.

“It was being billed as a relegation decider but there’s still plenty of time to go,” their interim coach, Richard Agar, said. “We’re not thinking we’re OK now because we’ve got two points here, because the performance shows there’s no quick fix for this.”

Richie Myler’s 68th-minute try had put Leeds into a position of relative comfort, putting them 24-10 ahead. That the Broncos scored back‑to‑back tries to reduce the gap to two not only made Leeds work every inch of the way but guaranteed they will be in this relegation battle until the final moments, despite being written off before a ball was kicked this season.

Related: Leeds and London face a relegation scrap at Anfield in Magic Weekend

“The boys are devastated,” their coach, Danny Ward, said. “There’s plenty of fight, plenty of scrap and we’ll learn from that defeat. We’ll fight for everything until the end.”

Leeds sauntered into an early 10-0 lead thanks to Liam Sutcliffe and Ash Handley, but when London reduced the deficit to 10-6 at half-time courtesy of Ryan Morgan’s try, the nerves among Leeds’s players – and their travelling support – were palpable.

They were calmed somewhat when Jack Walker extended the lead three minutes after the break but London responded again, this time when Jordan Abdull scored. Tries for Harry Newman and Myler in the space of three minutes appeared to put the result beyond doubt but Abdull and Alex Walker soon replied.

Leeds have fallen apart on several occasions this season with the game in the balance, but they just about held on. How vital a win it was too, given Hull KR edged past Salford in the day’s opening game thanks to Ryan Shaw’s late penalty.

Rovers are level with Leeds on 10 points but they were made to work hard for the win, having led 20-6 before Salford mounted a commendable fightback to set up another thrilling finale.

There were no such nerves for the Super League leaders, however, as St Helens closed the Magic Weekend with a comprehensive 36-16 victory against Castleford to secure a seventh successive win. Tries from Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace, Jonny Lomax and Theo Fages put them 20-0 up midway through the first half

Grant Millington’s try gave Castleford hope at the break, but further scores for Jack Ashworth, Lachlan Coote and Kevin Naiqama wrapped up the win, despite late tries from Chris Clarkson and Greg Eden for the Tigers, who have now lost five of their last six games.

The total attendance for the two days was 56,869, the second-lowest since the event began in 2007.