Leeds Rhinos reaction: Rohan Smith hails composed side after play-off win at Catalans

Rhinos will travel to St Helens next week if Huddersfield Giants beat Salford Red Devils on Saturday.

A win for Salford would send Leeds to Wigan Warriors, with a place in the Grand Final, in two weeks’ time, up for grabs.

A stormy game in Perpignan saw Catlans finish with 11 men after prop Gil Dudson was sent-off and stand-off Michael Pearce sin-binned for the second time.

Catalans’ Leeds-born hooker Michael McIlorum was also yellow carded.

There were angry scenes at the end as the match officials were pelted with objects thrown from the crowd.

Liam Sutcliffe scored a hat-trick of tries for Rhinos and Zak Hardaker landed four goals.

Smith said: “I thought it was a very controlled performance. We tried to play some footy and pull them apart a bit and we did.

“The amount of stoppages were unbelievable, we’ve been in France four times and they’re the four slowest game of the year, but in the second half we kept our nerve, stayed composed and saw it out, despite not playing great.

“Now we’ve got to dust ourselves off and make the most of this opportunity.”

Of the scenes at the end, Smith said: “They were disappointing.

“I thought the referee adjudicated things strongly in the second half.

“When the crowd was roarding he kept refereeing the game as he intended, which was great to see.

“Our players to be treated like that was disappointing, but no actual harm done.”