| Leeds (12) 18 |
| Tries: O’Connor, Johnson, Handley Goals: Martin 3 |
| Hull KR (18) 19 |
| Tries: Schneider, Opacic, Senior Goals: Milnes 3 Drop-goal: Schneider |
Brad Schneider kicked the golden-point extra-time winner as Hull KR bounced back from a derby defeat to beat Leeds.
Schneider, Tom Opacic and Louis Senior had crossed for the away side to give them an 18-12 lead at the break.
Ash Handley scored his 100th Super League try to add to earlier scores from Jarrod O’Connor and Corey Johnson to level the scores up.
Leeds could have won in regular time but failed to get the job done and debutant Schneider made them pay.
It was a Super League bow to remember for the 22-year-old Australian half-back, who joined on a deal until the end of the season last week after being released by Canberra.
Victory at Headingley moved Willie Peters’ men up to sixth, above Salford on points difference.
Hull KR came into the game off a disappointing 16-6 home defeat by neighbours Hull FC on Sunday but took an early lead in West Yorkshire when Schneider powered over after they had lost Dean Hadley to a head injury.
O’Connor went over from acting half-back after Leeds forced a goal-line drop-out but Schneider then teed up Opacic to put the away side back into the lead with a lovely grubber kick.
Opacic sent Senior away to increase their advantage before Johnson dived over for Leeds.
Handley claimed his century of Super League tries from a brilliant kick from Aidan Sezer and the home side laid siege to the KR line late on but Justin Sangare dropped the ball when well-placed to win it in 80 minutes.
Schneider nearly landed a drop-goal in the first minute of extra time but hit the underside of the crossbar, however, he did not make the same error moments later when a Leeds error set him up for a second go.
Victory will send Hull KR into their Challenge Cup semi-final with Wigan next Sunday in a confident mood, while Rohan Smith’s men will look to get their top-six bid back on track when they visit inconsistent St Helens in a fortnight.
Leeds Rhinos boss Rohan Smith:
“Any golden-point loss is hard to take because you know you’ve gone the distance but not got the job done.
“On a difficult night conditions-wise, we let ourselves down with a couple of those tries we conceded in the first half.
“We kept going with our attacking in the second half – when they didn’t score a try – but the game-management stuff before that was probably the stuff before that in normal time.
“Credit to the young kid [Schneider], he’s only been here for a week but he’s taken two drop-goal attempts and won them the game.
“We had a fair picture about him and he’s a good, solid player who stepped up to the plate when the game was on the line so fair play to him.”
Hull KR coach Willie Peters:
“It was a really resilient performance under a lot of adversity.
“We lost Deano [Dean Hadley] early on, but the players kept turning up for one another.
“I was really pleased for Brad [Schneider] because he only got off the plane last week.
“I said for everyone to be patient because he’s a young half-back, but this was a debut that he will always remember.
“He was excited to come to Headingley because this is an historic ground, so I’m really pleased for him but it was a real team effort.”
Leeds: Myler; Fusitua, Martin, MacDonald, Handley; Sezer, Oledzki; O’Connor, Walters, Bentley, McDonnell, Smith, Austin.
Interchanges: Lisone, Holroyd, Sangare, Johnson.
Hull KR: Ryan; Senior, Opacic, Kenny-Dowall, Hall; Milnes, Schneider; Kennedy, Litten, King, Batchelor, Keinhorst, Hadley.
Interchanges: Parcell, Storton, Johnson, Luckley.
Referee: Tom Grant