The Rhinos showed great skill at times against Quins at Headingley Carnegie

© Andrew Varley

Leeds led at the interval courtesy of a Brent Webb double and Ryan Hall score but it was their nervy, error-strewn showing that will have caused concern at the interval.

But nine tries in a devastating second-half signalled the Rhinos’ return to form in a 62-4 victory.

“It’s good to see the players enjoying themselves and expressing themselves and I thought we were able to pass the ball a bit and scored some nice tries,” said McClennan.

Attempting to explain his side’s slow start, the Rhinos boss added: “We tried too hard, we made a lot of line breaks but we just didn’t execute well. We got a bit impetuous and tried one pass too many.

“I think that’s what we did better in the second half. When we made splits, we didn’t think we had to score, we made better decisions with the football.”

Leeds brought their frustration from Sunday’s World Club Challenge into tonight’s clash after victorious Melbourne’s tactics prevented them from gaining any momentum in attack.

And McClennan insists it will not happen again.

He said: “It was good to do that to get over last week.

“We came in with the mindset that we didn’t want to be slowed down.

“It’s a long season and we really set for Melbourne.

“By all accounts we didn’t have the flashiest of form but we set for Melbourne. You have a chance to win a trophy so you have a crack at it.

“We did and we’re proud of our efforts but we got slowed down too much so the only thing we can do is to learn lessons and that’s what we’re trying to do by creating momentum in attack.”

Harlequins, who have now won only one of their five outings so far this season, currently have seven players out through injury.

Coach Brian McDermott admitted it is hugely frustrating and accepted he cannot expect any more from his team until some of his key players return.

“There’s no anger from me,” he said. “The scoreline and the nature of the tries was tough.

“When we get those players back, we’ll have our run but it’s not nice at the moment while it’s happening.”

The Quins risk sliding to the bottom of the table if they lose to Salford next week but the message from McDermott was a positive one – keep believing.

They are three of the most famous venues on the planet – and Rugby League fans can book their seats at Wembley, Murrayfield and Old Trafford in 2010 with the best value sporting ticket in town.

For the amazing price of just £49, the Super Saver Passport secures tickets at the amazing Magic Weekend, the historic Carnegie Challenge Cup Final and the climactic end to the season, the Engage Super League Grand Final.

With nine matches taking place, the £49 Super Saver Passport works out at less than £6 per match and represents amazing value, making some of this year’s biggest sporting events affordable for everyone.

The action kicks off on the weekend of May 1 and 2 when all 14 Engage Super League clubs head to Edinburgh for a full round of matches over two memorable days at Murrayfield, which hosts Magic Weekend for the second successive season.

Then, on Saturday 28, Rugby League’s oldest and most prestigious knockout competition culminates with the Carnegie Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, a match which has stirred passion, joy and pride in the hearts of fans for 113 years.

Finally, on Saturday October 2 the Engage Super League season climaxes under the floodlights at the Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford where the sport’s best two clubs do battle for the 2010 title.

“The Super Saver Passport for the three hottest events of the years has to be the best value ticket in sport,” said the RFL’s Marketing Manager Phil Williams.

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The Super Saver Passport is available in two price brackets, £49 for value seats (£29 concessions) and £145 for best seats (£95 concessions).

Nike Dunks have been reborn. Due to the high demand for these great shoes, Nike has come out with a new, styling Nike SB Dunk. This shoe has all the luxurious comfort that all Nike Dunks have to offer anyone lucky (and smart!) enough to wear them. If for this reason alone, Nike Dunk SBs are a hit among people of all ages, from young to old and from all over the world. Nike has held the envious position of being the most popular shoe maker of its kind for a very long time. As a point of fact, the Nike Dunk was originally created in the first part of the eighties and since that time, Nike has taken over and dominated the market.

In the beginning, Nike Dunks were built for and used by basketball players. The shoe’s design was of a basic sneaker but made out of canvas. As more and more players donned these shoes, their popularity spread like wildfire and b-ball fans all over wanted their own pair Dunks. The fact that they were also comfy, strong, and reliable helped, too. The Nike Dunk was a favorite of many old school basketball players who wore them in colors that matched their uniforms.

Nike retooled and updated their Dunks to cater to the skateboarding crowd once skating took hold and gained rank among the populace. Nike Skateboarding Dunks share many qualities with their normal Dunk brethren. Whether playing basketball or skateboarding it is vital that one must have shoes they can rely on to facilitate movements on many different planes. Nike SB Dunks excel in this area. They are strong and reliable and are made with extra strong material to withstand any abuse that skaters can put them through. A low toe design along thin soles gives the Nike Skateboarding Dunks better control and traction for performing advanced tricks and stunts.

Nike Dunk SBs are not just about function, however. These skating shoes truly do have a style all their own and are quite recognizable by their thickly padded tongue and Zoom Air insole. They are available in a multitude of colorway combinations and there are plenty of design styles to please most anybody. With this nearly limitless selection of choices to personalize the Nike Skateboarding Dunks you can rest assured that whatever you what you want you can find a Nike Dunk SB to fit your style.

Almost every football fan is awaiting the FIFA 2010 World Cup scheduled to begin in June next year. Ever since the end of the qualifications, there have been many premonitions as to who would win the world cup? Of course it is not just the fans who are awaiting this event. Betters too are expecting some good winning chances in the 2010 World Cup Betting. It can be said without a doubt that football still remains a favorite betting medium for most betters, and yet it is important to have a significant knowledge of the game so that you do not end up betting against the odds. This is because winners can never be predicted accurately in a game and it is not always the best side that wins. However, if you are really keen on football betting you can always find your way online. The internet is the best source for all information on world cup betting and even the 2010 World Cup winner odds.

Tony Smith, the England coach, has a series of tricky calls to make over who to play at centre during the forthcoming Gillette Four Nations, including whether to respond to Keith Senior’s readiness to come out of international retirement.

The 33-year-old Leeds Rhinos centre said that he was prepared to answer his country’s call, although he has heard nothing from Smith, who dispensed with any sentiment on Tuesday in omitting Martin Gleeson, Senior’s England and Great Britain centre partner for most of the past seven years.

Smith has added two other Wigan Warriors players to his training squad, Sam Tomkins, 20, the engage Super League young player of the year, and Sean O’Loughlin, the Wigan captain, who missed the 2008 World Cup through injury. However, the England coach looks to have brought an end to Gleeson’s international career after 26 appearances.

The available choices at centre, nonetheless, represent meagre pickings. Whether Smith turns once again to Senior, who made his Britain debut in 1996 and announced his representative retirement after the disappointing World Cup campaign, will be known when he confirms his final squad selection on Monday, taking into account the Leeds and St Helens players involved in Saturday’s Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Leeds Rhinos and St Helens, who play in Saturday’s engage Grand Final, were snubbed in terms of the significant Super League honours at last night’s awards ceremony in Manchester.

Brett Hodgson, the Huddersfield Giants full back, was named the 2009 Man of Steel and became only the fourth Australian winner of the game’s highest individual accolade, after Gavin Miller (1986), Adrian Vowles (1999) and Jamie Lyon (2005), since the award was instigated in 1977.

It is the fourth time that a player not involved in the Grand Final has won the prize for the player deemed to have made the biggest impact on the season by his Super League peers.

Huddersfield finished the regular season behind Leeds and St Helens, who meet for a third successive year at Old Trafford, but the Giants were the evening’s big winners. Nathan Brown, like Hodgson a new arrival from the NRL this season, was named coach of the year and the Giants the Super League club of the year for their investment in coaching and talent development.

Had Sean Long not bundled Joel Tomkins into touch, as Wigan Warriors threatened to score the try that would have extended the second qualifying semi-final into extra time at the very least, St Helens would possibly not be anticipating their “threepeat” meeting with Leeds Rhinos in the engage Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday.

St Helens have been beaten in the past two finals by Leeds, but the Long factor is a significant one. The 33-year-old scrum half is anxious to end a glittering 12-year career with Saints, before he joins Hull next year, with a fifth Super League winner’s gold ring, despite not knowing “just how many rings I’ve won and where they even are”.

His dreadlocks flew everywhere as he denied Wigan and primed the St Helens attack during a thunderous derby showdown. As for worries about Long sustaining writer’s cramp due to him signing copies of his new autobiography before the match, his trigger finger was responsible for the second of Francis Meli’s tries, while his slicing through the cover and reaching out for the line in the first half was vintage Long.

Wigan’s physicality and persistence were immense in the second half and Pat Richards’s effort in gathering his own kick and rolling over to score set up an incredibly tense last ten minutes.

Barrow ended a 26-year cup drought in beating Halifax 26-18 in the Co-operative Championship Grand Final in Warrington last night, although the result was clouded in controversy after Lee Paterson was cynically put off in missing a crucial conversion for Halifax.

Paterson was attempting to convert a 70th-minute try by Mick Govin that would have levelled the score at 20-20 and possibly forced the game into extra time. Television replays proved that a Barrow player illegally ran from behind the line in an effort to distract Paterson, who was distraught afterwards at missing four of five place-kicks.

For the Cumbrian side, it was their first triumph since lifting the Lancashire Cup in 1983. It marked a remarkable turnaround for the club after their promotion from National League Two last year, although Halifax pushed them all the way in a dramatic final.

Barrow retrieved a 10-0 deficit by the break, before Ben Black’s try edged Halifax back in front. Jamie Rooney’s conversion of a try by Dave Allen after 62 minutes gave Barrow the lead for the first time and a quickfire brace of tries by Andreas Bauer proved conclusive.

Leeds Rhinos qualified last night for a record-equalling sixth engage Grand Final a week today and were installed as favourites to win an unprecedented third consecutive championship in the Super League era. In their path stand St Helens or Wigan Warriors, who meet in today’s second qualifying semi-final at Knowsley Road.

The passage to Old Trafford was hardly a smooth one against a ruggedly uncompromising Catalans Dragons side, whom Leeds had chosen to play under the “ClubCall” system, but who have belied their eighth-place finish in the regular season and fought with a dogged spirit and self-belief to the end of their play-offs adventure.

Those qualities, though, were never quite sufficient against opponents of Leeds’ calibre on an evening when they invoked the spirit of John Holmes, arguably the club’s greatest player, who died from cancer last Saturday, aged 57. Holmes would not have failed to be impressed by the daring and sublime skills that characterised three of their five tries in a pivotal quickfire spell before the break.

“Boy that was tough, physically and mentally,” Brian McClennan, the Leeds coach, said. “They dominated us for long spells and we’re rapped to get the win. It’s the hit out we probably needed, if we’re going to win the premiership again.”