Leeds Rhinos’ Jamie Peacock sympathises with St. Helens after their fifth Final defeat
While talking to reporters on Monday, October 10, Leeds Rhinos’ forward, Jamie Peacock, sympathised with St. Helens fifth consecutive Grand Final defeat against his squad at Old Trafford.
Saints were loking to end a run of four defeats against Leeds in five years, but their dream remained unfulfilled after they met Rhinos in Saturday’s battle.
Peacock stretched out his record of giving the most Grand Final winning appearance for Leeds and has been lauded for the crucial role he played in Leed’s 32-16 success over Saints in Saturday’s showdown.
This was Peacock’s seventh Grand Final out of a total of nine appearances, whereas, Saints have lost the title to Rhinos for the fourth time.
While talking about the course of events, during Saturday night’s final duel of the current season, Peacock said that he felt gravely for the Saints players’ loss.
He further added that Saints deserved better results because the squad had some quality players who could reach to their full potential during the final battle.
While explaining how well Saints had responded to their half-time scores, the 33-year-old Leeds’ veteran added, “Saints looked to have ended their losing run when tries from Tom Makinson and Michael Shenton, allied to the boot of Jamie Foster, gave them
a 16-8 lead with just 20 minutes to go. But Peacock's men summoned one last effort and, inspired by another dazzling break from man of the match Rob Burrow, they ran in four tries in a frantic last quarter to run away with the game. If ever a game encapsulated
our season, I think that was it.”
Leeds had to crawl their way back into the brawl, which tilted completely to one side in the initial half and to the opposite in the second half, with the late surge from Saints which ended with a 16-8 lead over Leeds.
The match could have gone completely in favour of Saints were not for the untimely shoulder injury to Michael Shenton, which came right after Paul Wellens was making his exit from the field.
From that point onwards there was no stopping Leeds’ struggle for the title which did not end until they knew they had gone well past the point where theie rivals could spring back to life.
Peacock also acknowledged the high quality players Leeds has as back rowers, with out whom Saturday night’s win could not be possible. He also took the opportunity to praise Rob Burrow for his on field brilliance, which was worth mentioning after Leeds’
magnificent win.
While paying tribute to the prop for his professional flare on field, Peacock reckoned that Burrow’s role cannot be sidelined in the Grand Final triumph.
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