'To the wire': Rohan Smith on Leeds Rhinos' run-in, recent form and need for better attack at Catalans

Leeds were in a relegation dogfight during the first half of the campaign and sat 10th in mid-June, but a six-game winning run has powered them into play-off contention.

Smith’s men visit Catalans Dragons on Monday and wrap up the regular season at home to Castleford Tigers five days later.

Catalans are fourth, three points ahead of Rhinos and will secure a home play-off if they beat Leeds.

Salford Red Devils and Tigers, who meet at the Jungle on Monday, are a further point behind, which means Rhinos can secure a top-six finish with victory in France.

A win in Perpignan would also keep Leeds on track for fourth place on the final table and a home tie, but their play-off hopes will depend on the final round derby against Castleford if they lose.

Smith, who took charge in May, insisted: “I haven’t done the maths.

“I am aware of where we are, but the game against Catalans is the only focus at the moment.

“Certainly it is going to go down to the wire who finishes where - even second, third and fourth - and that’s how you want the competition to be, going down to the last round.

“As a coach you’d rather have your place settled and fixed, but given where we were not so long ago, we’d certainly have grabbed this opportunity with both hands if somebody had offered it a month or two ago.”

At least five of Rhinos’ current squad - Liam Sutcliffe, Brad Dwyer, Bodene Thompson, Tom Briscoe and Muizz Mustapha - will be moving on at the end of this season, but Smith stressed sending them out on a high is only part of their motivation.

“We’ve got everything to play for,” he stated.

“Every week is an opportunity to do what you love to do and compete and represent the club.

“People represent their families and where they come from and that type of stuff; to play for a play-off opportunity is huge and some guys are coming to the end of their time at the Rhinos.

“Every club is having that same situation at the moment, I don’t think our turnover is going to be any higher than most other clubs.

“We have got a lot of continuity going forward next year, but we are very focused on the group we are right now and making the most of this opportunity.

“It would be great for some people to depart on a very big high, but it’s on to Catalans on Monday.

“We need to take some lessons out of our game against Huddersfield [an 18-14 win last Wednesday] for sure - as I am sure Catalans will from their game against Toulouse - and dust off and find the energy to go again.”

Despite being critical of Rhinos’ performance with the ball in recent games, Smith is confident they can get their attack back on track for the run-in.

“Everything is quite temporary in sport, I think,” he said.

“You can go from having a poor attacking game to a good one really quickly, if you just stick to your principles and process.

“We aren’t stressing about it, we just need to polish things up and regain a bit of composure with our attack.”

Rhinos have effectively been playing knockout rugby for the past six weeks and have battled through a series of tight games since their defeat at Toulouse Olympique in mid-July.

Play-offs will be of a similar intensity, but Smith still isn’t thinking about what happens after round 27.

“It is good preparation for Monday, against Catalans,” he noted.

“The approach we’ve had is to treat every game like its own unique opportunity, challenge and test, which it is.

“I think the games we’ve been playing in lately are high-standard, competitive, down to the wire sort of games and that’s generally how play-offs turn out to be.”