THE Loughborough Lightning really showed their class against the Leeds Rhinos on the weekend in the Netball Super League, downing the home side 64-56. The Rhinos were their own worst enemy at times as the Lightning proved why they are one of the league’s best in the business.

After a miss skewed pass in the Rhinos’ attack, the Lightning were able to pounce and break off the first centre pass, but the Rhinos countered with the next two goals to get proceedings back on centre pass.

It was a strongly contested opening passage as neither team really got a foothold of control on the game. Eventually the Lightning did finally get a foothold in the game, as Rhea Dixon began to start feeding Mary Cholhok across the circle really well, catching Zoe Davies and to a lesser extent Geva Mentor out of position and unable to do anything.

Missing easy shots did not help the Rhinos at all, and as such they found themselves eight goals behind at the first change. After an initial goal for goal period to start the second term, an opportunistic intercept from Beth Cobden helped the Lightning get a few goals in a row.

Although the Rhinos improved their defensive pressure, they continued to make mistakes in attack so could not capitalise, and as such the Lightning quickly pushed their lead into the double digit category. It got fiery in the final few minutes of the term, but ultimately the Lightning’s lead was a dozen goals at the main break.

The third term was a very different story as the Rhinos came out firing and went on to win the quarter 21 goals to 14. However, the Lightning reasserted control in the last quarter and won it by three goals to seal their win.

In other results:

• The Sirens have picked up their first points of 2024, after they drew with the Cardiff Dragons.

Momentum continued to switch between the sides as the match progressed, with the margin no greater than four goals at any break.

• The London Pulse picked up another big win, this time over fellow top four side the Severn Stars.

The tale of the afternoon was told early, with the Pulse winning the first quarter by nine goals and the second by seven.

• The Saracens Mavericks also picked up a big win, defeating Team Bath by nine goals.

The margin was never very big, but crucially the Mavericks won three of the four quarters to ultimately take the overall win.

• Manchester Thunder continued on their winning ways, downing the Surrey Storm by 25 goals.

The third quarter was where the match was ultimately won, and it saw the Thunder win the quarter 20 goals to nine.