The visitors bossed the opening half-hour, camped in their opponents’ territory but missing a couple of early opportunities as Morgan MacRae and Ben Atkins came close.
Home No. 8 Eddie Brown was yellow carded for a cynical breakdown infringement on 20 minutes, Mike Cooke converting MacRae’s sixth try of the season soon after, but they were the only points of a stop-start first half.
Leeds made a fast start to the second, levelling through Ben Dixon and Ed Crossland, before beginning to have the better field position during the third quarter.
Rams, however, were dominant at scrum time and took command as Tom Collins, Aarin Yorke and Will Dennis were sin-binned in the space of six dramatic minutes.
Late show secures victory
The numbers game finally told as Zach Clow crossed before Max Hayman followed with five minutes left – insufficient time to grab a bonus-point but still enough for Will Yates to become the fifth Tykes player to be yellow carded for a dangerous shot on Clow.
With the game played among 40mph gusts, handling mistakes were commonplace and Seb admitted it was his side’s will power which was ultimately crucial.
He explained: “We lost the toss and were playing downhill with the wind, but there were a lot of errors in the first 20 minutes, and we couldn’t capitalise on very strong field position.
“That adds pressure because you feel you should be and need to be further ahead, and when we’re only 7-0 up at half-time, they’re big favourites.
“At times our discipline was off which allowed them to relieve pressure, but we got the job done against a good team in tough conditions.
“We want to become better in these kind of games – we weren’t today – but I commend the guys for showing the guts and resilience to get the win.”
He continued: “We want to be an all-action team playing at a high tempo, but sometimes it’s not easy and you have to play a slightly different game.
“For example, the outside backs’ job for much of this game was more about sticking to task with the kick-chase, defence, communication.”
Scrum dominance proves pivotal
Rams endured a tricky build-up to the fixture with George Breese and Luke Graham sick in the morning, meaning James Baker started at prop, Ryan Lomas promoted to the bench, and another travelling reserve, Tomek Pozniak, on the right wing.
And Seb was pleased with how his side dealt with adversity, commenting: “It seems the TRs always play! On Thursday Ryan wasn’t even coming up, but he was on after half an hour and all four props – plus Poz – did a fantastic job.
“On Ant’s (Marris) 100th appearance it was probably fitting the scrum was a pivotal part of the game.
“Even when we did make mistakes, we had a platform to build from, attacked their ball well and it was important to the final result.”
Rams host Birmingham Moseley on Saturday (3pm). For tickets, click here
