When the Leeds Rhinos completed the treble at the end of 2015 you'd have got very long odds on them being involved in the 2016 super eights qualifiers and fighting for their Super League existence in 2017.

Today they made the short trip to Post Office Road to take on a Featherstone Rovers side who controlled their own destiny in beating the Bradford Bulls in the last round of the regular Championship season to leapfrog their opponents into the qualifiers and begin their quest for Super League.

Jon Sharp's Fev side came into the game looking for an upset but were up against a Rhinos side who had found form as the regular season ended and came into today's game on the back of five wins in their last six outings.

After spending the opening five minutes camped in the Featherstone half the Rhinos finally got over the line when Liam Sutcliffe and Danny McGuire combined to put Kallum Watkins through a gap to score. Sutcliffe slid the conversion attempt across the front of the sticks.

On thirteen Watkins turned provider when he broke the line and passed inside to Liam Sutcliffe to canter over from fifteen metres to score by the sticks and give himself a simple conversion for 10-0.

Against the run of play, Featherstone got on the board on twenty-eight thanks to Leeds mistakes. An optimistic offload went to Misi Taulapapa who found players in support and after the ball went to ground and was hacked backwards by Tom Briscoe, it was collected and grounded by Anthony Thackeray. Kyle Briggs added the extras to reduce the arrears to four points.

But Leeds struck back quickly on thirty-two when Joel Moon crashed the line off a Carl Ablett pass to push two tacklers out of the way to ground. Sutcliffe converted superbly from the left touchline for 16-6.

After a high tackle by Kyle Briggs on Brett Delaney, with just a few seconds left on the clock, Liam Sutcliffe kicked the penalty from ten metres to put the Rhinos twelve points ahead at the break.

Four minutes into the second half and the Rhinos were in again when Liam Sutcliffe threw the dummy and found Kallum Watkins in support inside to jog behind the sticks and give Sutcliffe a simple conversion for 24-6, the game starting to drift beyond the Flat Cappers.

Three minutes later and the Featherstone defence failed to deal with a high kick from McGuire. The ball bounced twice before Briscoe collected and offloaded to Watkins who came in from the wing and found Mitch Achurch to walk over to score. Sutcliffe added the extras and the Rhinos hit thirty.

On fifty-five the Rhinos were camped on the Fev line when a James Segeyaro short pass found Carl Ablett a metre from the line to crash over. Sutcliffe kicked his sixth two-pointer of the afternoon for 36-6.

The Rhinos were now totally dominant over the part-timers. On fifty-seven Tom Briscoe took a Watkins pass forty metres from the Rovers line, juggle the ball, and then sprint over. Sutcliffe missed a simple conversion but it would make no difference to the outcome of the game but did see the Rhinos to forty points for the first time this season.

Just two more minutes had passed before Ryan Hall broke down the left wing and found Sutcliffe over his right shoulder to take the pass and walk over without a Featherstone defensive hand on him. Sutcliffe again failed to add the extras.

Jimmy Keinhorst was sin-binned on sixty-five for a professional foul but it made no difference to Leeds as two minutes later Joel Moon skipped through the Featherstone defence off a Rob Burrow pass to score by the left upright. Sutcliffe kicked the extras to bring up the fifty.

On seventy-two a miss-out pass from Segeyaro put Watkins in for his hat-trick try from five metres out. Sutcliffe added the extras for a fifty point lead. With two minutes left on the clock Watkins broke the Featherstone line on his own ten metre line and went ninety metres, outpacing the Rovers defence, to score under the sticks. Sutcliffe kicked his ninth goal of the game for 62-6 to the Rhinos.

The Rhinos showed the gulf in class between Super League and the upper reaches of the Championship with a comprehensive win which will give them the confidence that they can get through the rest of the Qualifiers with a one-hundred percent record. Featherstone were their own worst enemy at times and as the game wore on they visibly tired faster than the full-timers.

The perfect start for the Rhinos 2017 Super League campaign.

Rovers: Hardman, Duckworth, Channing, Taulapapa, Briscoe, Briggs (G), Thackeray (T), Bostock, Ellis, Baldwinson, Snitch, Davies, Ormondroyd. Subs: Spears, Knowles-Tagg, Cooper, Griffin.

Rhinos: Sutcliffe (2T, 9G), Briscoe (T), Watkins (4T), Moon (2T), Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Galloway, Segeyaro, Singleton, Ferres, Ablett (T), Jones-Buchanan. Subs: Achurch (T), Delaney, Keinhorst (SB), Garbutt.

Referee: Joe Cobb.

Attendance: 6,671.