Halifax's Jack Brown scored eleven tries as Halifax maintained their unbeaten season by crushing the Leeds Rhinos, who still haven't won a game in 2016.
The game started well for Brown as within the first ten minutes of the game, he raced to an impressive hat trick, to give Halifax a twenty four point lead.
Leeds got on the scoreboard when they pushed hard for the try line, a slick pass to Tom Haliwell saw him score his first try of the game.
Four more tries for Brown and a first half hat trick for Nathan Holmes saw Halifax break through the fifty point barrier.
With a second try of the game for Haliwell, the Rhinos got into doubles figures but they trailed Halifax at the break.
HT: Halifax led 56-10
The second half saw Halifax rack up five more converted tries. Brown scored three of these, plus Holmes and Robert Hawkins both scored a try as well.
The Rhinos did score again when they forced a knock on, the ball was passed to Nathan Collins who raced away for his first try of the game.
Leeds continued to mound some good pressure on the Halifax defence, and their persistence was well rewarded when Ryan Richardson broke through for his first try of the game.
But Halifax finished the game strongly, as two tries a piece for Brown and Andy Atkinson saw them close out the game on top.
Halifax A 20 Leeds Rhinos A 42
In the North Development League, Leeds Rhinos A made it three wins from three games with a good display against Halifax A.
Nathan Collins was the star of the show; he scored four fantastic tries for the Rhinos. The team performed well and other tries from Luis Domingues and Jim Dyson saw the Rhinos close out an impressive win.
For Halifax A, Danny Cutts performed well for them, scoring two good team tries. Joseph Batchelor and Nathan Mulihall were also on the score sheet for Halifax but they just couldn’t catch the Rhinos.
Reaction
Following on from their impressive victory over the Leeds Rhinos, Halifax's star player and England International Jack Brown was very happy with his team performance, as they went three games unbeaten this season.
"We're very pleased with the victory; a lot of work has gone into our training to up our performance from our last two games. It was our plan to be relentless with our last two games being very difficult, I felt that our squad needed a comfortable margin of victory to reinstate or success from last year, my hope now is that from, this score line we can be confident in our future games to play to our full potential."
Jack went further to say that it was a team effort to hold off a Leeds Rhinos side, which has three England Internationals in their line up, and also to mention that he is not the only player in the Halifax squad.
"All our points come from a game plan; it often upsets me that I get a lot of the credit when in truth I would be nothing without my team mates. Robert Hawkins scored two beautiful tries as well as two from Andy Ako and others from Mulhall and Holmes. This game just proves the variety Halifax has and I couldn't be more proud."
Halifax's next game sees them start their defence of the Challenge Cup. They're up against the Gravesend Dynamite, and Jack is relishing the task of playing some new this season.
"Gravesend is a team we haven't met yet which brings uncertainties; I know they are a strong hard hitting team with great hands. So our focus will be to use our speed and experience to counter them. I don't like to dwell on statistics too much, because at the end of the day the best team on the day wins, no one can predict it but I'm sure it will be a spectacular showing."
In the other camp, the Leeds Rhinos coach Martyn Gill was very disappointed that the Rhinos have now picked up three defeats this season.
"I'm very disappointed with not only the result but the overall performance. We simply weren't good enough to compete and as a result we were punished. We just couldn't get to grips with Jack Brown and Nathan Holmes who were in great form on the day but we know if we want to compete we have to be better defensively."
Despite the result, there were a couple of positives that the Rhinos can look on, and it was their youngsters Tom Haliwell and Nathan Collins who shined on the field against Halifax.
"I think Tom and Nathan were our stand out performers who managed to give us a bit of shape, Nathans kicking game was probably the best thing about of our performance. I think in our opening two games we have shown some moments of very good Rugby League but the new game plan and processes haven't clicked yet and all we can continue to do is to review, tweak and look to improve."
Martyn was keen to mention that their Challenge Cup Quarter Final against the Glasgow Panthers was now a must win game, and he will be taking a full strength side to Glasgow.
"We won't be under estimating Glasgow and our full squad will be travelling. Nobody is on the team sheet yet and will have to earn their shirts over the coming weeks. Every game is a must win game but we are taking it one at a time and our focus will be purely on Glasgow at present."
Martyn has also refused to comment on whether England International Sebastian Bechara, will return to the Rhinos squad in time for either the Challenge Cup game against Glasgow, or the next league match against the North Wales Crusaders.
