Leeds Rhinos' narrow victory over Catalans Dragons last weekend has more significance than you may first think. Yes, it was huge in terms of the Rhinos' play-off hopes with the final weeks of the season approaching, but it also bucked two separate trends which have lingered across Leeds' performances since Rohan Smith took charge.
The victory in Perpignan was Smith's tenth match in charge, and the previous nine have followed similar patterns throughout. Whenever Leeds have scored first in a match under Smith, they have gone on to win. The five times they have broke the deadlock - against Wakefield, Warrington, Hull FC, Castleford and Wigan - the outcome has fallen Leeds' way.
In the other four, Leeds have conceded first. They all resulted in defeats to Salford - Smith's first match - Huddersfield, St Helens and Toulouse. So when Catalans opened the scoring on Saturday evening, any Leeds fans with a keen eye for stats and form may have feared the worst.
But at the tenth attempt in a Leeds match involving Smith, the side scoring first didn't end up victorious. As we all know, the Rhinos battled valiantly with 12 men to claim a dramatic victory courtesy of Aidan Sezer's try in extra-time to come away with two crucial Super League points.
That wasn't the only trend Leeds bucked, either.
There hasn't really been much in the way of nail-biting drama on the scoreboard since Smith assumed control at Leeds. Sometimes that's of comfort for Rhinos supporters, not least when it came to commanding victories against the likes of Hull FC and Wigan Warriors in recent weeks.
But defeats have also been straightforward, too. The lowest margin of defeat under Smith has been 14 points, meaning that the Rhinos have never been within three scores of an opponent in a game they have lost since the Australian arrived at Headingley.
That, of course, remains the case - but Leeds showed their mettle and came through a genuinely tight game on Saturday evening in France, the first real occasion that has happened since he succeeded Richard Agar. It certainly shows that if the race for the play-offs gets tight and tense, Leeds have the capability to come out on the right side of a thriller: something we weren't quite sure about before Saturday.
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