page_title: 2009 Super League Grand Final
section_title: 2nd half
hierarchical_section_title: 2009 Super League Grand Final / Match details / 2nd half
caption_attribution_description: English: Leeds Rhinos celebrate their 2009 Super League Grand Final Victory, after becoming the first side to win three consecutive Grand Finals. Taken at the game on the night of Saturday the 10th of October 2009.
context_page_description: The 2009 Super League Grand Final was the 12th official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding match of the Super League XIV season. It was held on Saturday 10 October 2009, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and was contested by defending champions and 2009 League Leaders Leeds Rhinos, and the team they had faced in the grand final for the past two years, St. Helens.
  The 2009 decider, contested by the sides finishing 1st and 2nd in the competition, was a very close contest, played at a furious pace from end to end with the lead changing several times and rarely being more than a single point. Every ruling on try-scoring situations was given by the video referee, with some allowed and some disallowed, including a few very close and controversial calls. Leeds Rhinos were eventual victors, winning the match 18 to 10. They became the first side in Super League history to be champions in three successive years.
context_section_description: Leeds kicked off and the ball went over the line after touching the arm of St. Helens' winger Ade Gardner. This gave a scrum feed to the Rhinos in an attacking position and when Sinfield got the ball close to the uprights he kicked a drop goal, putting Leeds in front for the first time in the match at 9 - 8. Just on forty-five minutes St. Helens centre Matt Gidley made a break and sent his winger Ade Gardner racing down the sideline to try to score in the corner. But after video analysis it was shown that the Leeds defenders coming across had forced him into touch before he grounded the ball. In the 58th minute St. Helens were again down at Leeds' end of the field when they got a penalty for a high shot on Sean Long from Rob Burrow. Saints opted to take the two points and Kyle Eastmond performed his third successful kick in a row, giving his side a one-point lead at 10-9. About seven minutes later Leeds were right down on St. Helens' goal line when Keiron Cunningham, in an attempt to slow things down, knocked the ball out of a Rhinos player's arms as he got up to play it, giving away a penalty. Sinfield's kick from right in front was never going to miss, so the one-point lead was with Leeds once again at 11-10, now with just over fifteen minutes remaining. At the sixty-eight-minute mark, St. Helens were on the attack and moved the ball out to Eastmond's wing where he dived over in the corner. Again the video referee was called on to check whether the St. Helens winger was taken into touch before scoring and he was, a desperate tackle by Sinfield pushing Eastmond's body into the corner post. Back at the other end of the field, Saints' goal-line defence was forced to absorb mounting pressure as Leeds attacked repeatedly, eventually penetrating when a chip kick from McGuire on the last tackle was chased and picked up by Lee Smith who touched down in the seventy-third minute. Once more the video referee's decision was requested, this time to check whether the scorer was on-side. Despite Smith appearing to be slightly in front of McGuire when the ball left his boot, the benefit of the doubt was given and the try was awarded. 
  The extras were kicked from straight in front by Sinfield, so the score was 17-10 in favour of Leeds with under seven minutes of play remaining. Just on the seventy-eight-minute mark the ball went to Rob Burrow for a drop goal attempt which he kicked successfully, putting the score at 18-10, which it would remain until the full-time siren.
  It was the Rhinos' two-try hero, Lee Smith's final game for Leeds before moving to rugby union. Leeds' forward Kevin Sinfield was awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man-of-the-match.
  The following day over 8,000 fans were at Headingley Carnegie Stadium to celebrate the victorious Leeds players' homecoming.
caption: Leeds Rhinos celebrate their victory.
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