Like scoring for Leeds United - Leeds Rhinos legend Jones-Buchanan recalls his favourite game
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That is how Leeds Rhinos stalwart Jamie Jones-Buchanan remembers the personal highlight of his favourite match.
The second-rower, now an assistant-coach at Leeds, starred when Rhinos beat
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Unlike the win against Canterbury Bulldogs on the same ground three years earlier, Jones-Buchanan didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he did make a key contribution to Rhinos’ 11-4 success.
Leeds were trailing 4-2 and under the pump in the first half, having lost Danny McGuire to a shoulder injury, when Jones-Buchanan got their chins off the floor with a huge hit on Storm winger Steve Turner.
“Throughout my career I didn’t get many big shots,” Jones-Buchanan – who retired as a player at the end of last season – recalled.
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Hide Ad“I suppose it’s nothing to be proud of, the fact it was a winger, but I ended up bashing him.
“It was right in front of the Revie Stand and I remember the crowd going up like I’d scored a goal.
“It was an experience which I suppose is as close as I am ever going to get to scoring a goal at Elland Road.”
The forward’s defensive bellringer turned the game.
Rhinos scored a try through Scott Donald just before the break and two Kevin Sinfield goals and a one-pointer – to add to his first half penalty – sealed a momentous win.
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Hide AdJones-Buchanan, now 38, said: “Despite all the Grand Finals, that was the one I really enjoyed being a part of.
“It was a real war, like being one of the Spartans in the film 300.
“It was a great Melbourne side and I am a big Leeds fan so playing at Elland Road was quite important for me.
“It was a nice thing, in a match where we could become world champions.
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Hide Ad“We’d already done it against Canterbury Bulldogs, but I remember going out to warm-up in 2008 and all the cones were disappearing into a vortex of wind.
“It was a real war of attrition and we won so that was one of those games you come away from feeling like a bit of a hero.”
The world title match was watched by a huge crowd of 33,204 despirte appalling conditions.
The wind and rain limited free-flowing rugby and the two sides made a combined total of more than 800 tackles.
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Hide Ad“When we played them again in 2018, over there there were a few press conferences talking about previous meetings,” Jones-Buchanan added.
“When I went through the 2008 team – Clinton Toopi, Brent Webb, Scotty Donald, the forward pack we had – I remember thinking ‘wow – we had a right side out’.
“That’s what it took to beat a quality Melbourne team and I suppose the horrendous weather and hostile environment for them probably spurred us on.
“We only won by the skin of our teeth still, but it did give me a reason to think I have been fortunate to play in some pretty good teams over the years.”
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Hide AdJones-Buchanan rates that Elland Road victory more highly than the 2005 one “because it was Melbourne and I played a bigger part in that game”.
Of Leeds’ first world title win, he reflected: “That was special because I scored a try, all be it I didn’t make any metres – I just dived on a loose ball.
“They are all worth four points and they all go towards winning. I remember before it being scared to death because everyone talks up the NRL teams – and we were 26-6 up at half-time!
“A rampant Sonny Bill Williams got them back into it and I remember thinking in the last three or four minutes we weren’t going to hang on, but we did. The Melbourne one, though, for me was a special one.”
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