Foran: Rhinos ‘too good’

Kieran Foran says Leeds are fully deserving of their World Club Challenge title after last night’s 26-12 victory over Manly at Headingley.

The Sea Eagles were outscored five tries to two by the Rhinos, who never relinquished the lead after Kallum Watkins scampered over for the opening score midway through the first half.

Two scores either side of half time from Brett Stewart and Daly Cherry-Evans restored some hope for the visitors, but Leeds, buoyed by Ryan Hall‘s first half brace, finished strongly to claim victory.

“They played pretty well tonight,” Foran told the club website.

“They put it to us physically and their plays came off. They deserved to win tonight.”

Foran admitted that Sea Eagles were “underdone” having played just one trial match against Cronulla prior to meeting the Rhinos but says were prepared for the match.

“We had a good week’s training and we certainly came here with every bit of confidence that we could come away with the win but unfortunately they were just too good tonight,” Foran said.

However the New Zealand international was upbeat about the team’s performance and is confident they can put things right ahead of their opening NRL round clash with the New Zealand Warriors.

“There were a lot of positives,” he added.

“We put in an eighty minute performance here tonight even though we didn’t get the win. We tried hard, we put in for each other but we were just ten or fifteen percent off tonight.”