Second-placed St Helens' impressive 26-12 win at Headingley Carnegie cut the champions' advantage at the top of the table, which was six points at the start of the month, to just two.

And Rhinos now face teams who have already beaten them this year, Castleford and Wigan, in their next two games.

What appeared to be a procession towards the league leaders' shield has become a dogfight and Saints – on an 11-game winning run – are now the team in form and with momentum behind them.

For 60 of the 80 minutes, there was nothing between the two sides, but Saints' dominance in the third quarter proved decisive as they transformed a narrow 10-6 interval lead into a commanding 12-point advantage.

Referee Steve Ganson – who is from St Helens – was at the heart of things during that game-breaking spell, awarding Saints a series of penalties and dismissing Rhinos' substitute prop Nick Scruton for a spear tackle on Keiron Cunningham.

The 50-50 calls went Saints' way all the game and seven successive penalties either side of the break were crucial.

Several of those decisions were dubious and Rhinos could claim with some justification that they were being penalised for offences Saints were allowed to get away with.

There wasn't too much argument about the 54th-minute red card, Rhinos' first since Barrie McDermott was sent off at Bradford in August 2002.

Scruton upended Cunningham and drove him into the turf, though it looked clumsy rather than malicious – and Ganson had allowed Huddersfield's Kevin Brown to remain on the pitch following a similar incident in the game at Wakefield six days earlier.

At the start of the second half Lee Smith was penalised for tackling Francis Meli in the air, when the Saints winger spilled the ball near his own line, then Lee Gilmour appeared to knock-on and Saints were awarded a penalty for a ball steal.

That spell of pressure brought a try as long passes by Leon Pryce and Paul Wellens allowed Meli to cross in the corner.

Jamie Jones-Buchanan – outstanding off the bench for Leeds – was contentiously penalised for interference after he was shoved over twice by Sean Long at a play-the-ball; then Jones-Buchanan dragged Long into touch and was again penalised, Scruton being dismissed in the subsequent set.

Meli's second try – off good hands by Pryce, Long, Wellens and Willie Talau – followed the resulting penalty.

Saints could have extended their lead, but Kevin Sinfield did brilliantly to get a hand on the ball as Long tried to touch down, before Cunningham knocked on over the line.

Soon after that Matt Diskin and Keith Senior worked a blindside move which was finished off by Scott Donald and Sinfield's superb touchline conversion cut Saints' lead to six points with 15 minutes left.