St Helens 38–10 Leeds Rhinos — Qualifying Semi-Final, 2008 Super League Finals Series
19 Sep 2008 · Knowsley Road, St Helens · Attendance: 11,407
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
Qualifying Semi-Final, 2008 Super League finals series: St Helens 38–10 Leeds Rhinos, at Knowsley Road, St Helens on 19 Sep 2008.
Sourcing caveat: Leeds' listed kicker Kevin Sinfield went 0/1 per the source found and isn't included above since it added no points; individual try minutes were not confirmed across sources and are omitted rather than guessed at. Rugby League Project's round summary confirms Danny McGuire scored only once (not twice) for Leeds, which corrects an earlier version of this entry that had over-credited Leeds by 4 points (14 vs. the correct 10). Both lineups fetched cleanly, with real, varied squad numbers rather than a sequential position-order index; Leeds' numbering here (Webb 1, Ablett 19 at centre, Sinfield 13 at lock) cross-matches exactly with this club's Elimination Final appearance the following week.
Scorers
| St Helens | Tries: Roby (2); Wilkin (2); Gardner; Gidley; Meli Goals: Long (5/9 conversions) |
| Leeds Rhinos | Tries: Ellis; McGuire Goals: Burrow (1/1 conversions) |
Team sheets
| St Helens | Leeds Rhinos | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Wellens | Fullback | Brent Webb | 1 |
| 2 | Ade Gardner | Wing | Lee Smith | 2 |
| 3 | Matthew Gidley | Centre | Carl Ablett | 19 |
| 4 | Willie Talau | Centre | Keith Senior | 4 |
| 5 | Francis Meli | Wing | Scott Donald | 5 |
| 6 | Leon Pryce | Five-Eighth | Danny McGuire | 6 |
| 7 | Sean Long | Halfback | Rob Burrow | 7 |
| 17 | James Graham | Prop | Kylie Leuluai | 8 |
| 9 | Keiron Cunningham (c) | Hooker | Matt Diskin | 9 |
| 18 | Bryn Hargreaves | Prop | Jamie Peacock | 10 |
| 11 | Lee Gilmour | Second Row | Jamie Jones-Buchanan | 11 |
| 12 | Jon Wilkin | Second Row | Gareth Ellis | 12 |
| 13 | Chris Flannery | Lock | Kevin Sinfield (c) | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 8 | Nick Fozzard | Ali Lauiti'iti | 14 | |
| 14 | James Roby | Ryan Bailey | 16 | |
| 23 | Maurie Fa'asavalu | Nick Scruton | 17 | |
| 28 | Paul Clough | Jordan Tansey | 21 | |
| Daniel Anderson | Coach | Brian McClennan | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Ashley Klein |
Match report
St Helens beat Leeds Rhinos 38-10 at Knowsley Road on 19 September 2008 in a Super League Qualifying Semi-Final, leading 12-4 at half-time. St Helens, as League Leaders, pulled away in a comfortable home win that sent Leeds into the lower bracket.