Leeds Rhinos Jury: praise for Justin Sangare but performance at Warrington was 'embarrassing' and 'dull'

The YEP fans’ Jury haven’t pulled any punches following Leeds Rhinos’ dismal start to Betfred Super League.

The panel blasted Rhinos’ 42-10 loss at Warrington Wolves as “disastrous”, “embarrassing” and “sloppy, weak and dull”, but there was praise for debutant forward Justin Sangare after his try-scoring performance off the bench.

Looking ahead to Friday’s visit of Hull FC, the Jury believe Rhinos can get their season up and running, but are wary of the threat old boys Liam Sutcliffe and Brad Dwyer will pose.

DAVID MUHL

Well, I can’t say round one wasn’t very disappointing. It was a night, I think, better forgotten and filed under ‘we can’t play as bad as that again this year’, but trophies aren’t handed out in February! There are a lot of games left to play this season and I’m sure Rohan Smith will be working hard on what went wrong on Thursday.

The positives were few and far between, but we weren’t nilled and Justin Sangare showed signs he will be a good addition to the squad.

Leeds have a habit of being slow starters to the season, we regularly lose the first game so let’s hope we can bounce back at home against Hull.

The two things I found really concerning were one: having a three-quarter line totally made up of wingers, the sooner we can get Harry Newman and Nene MacDonald back the better.

And two: the ease Warrington rode roughshod over our pack down the middle - Oledzki and Bentley will be welcome additions as well to boost a well- beaten pack.

The game at home to Hull on Friday will be an interesting one, nephew versus uncle and the return of Liam Suttcliffe and Brad Dwyer who will both have a point to prove to the Leeds management.

I hope the Leeds fans give them a warm welcome, they were good servants to the Leeds club. I’m sure the Leeds players will have learnt from last week and will come out with a lot more fire in their belly.

Let’s cut out the unforced errors which seem to have dominated our game for the last couple of seasons and play for the full 80 minutes, not just the second half when the game’s gone away from us.

BECKY OXLEY

So the first match of the new season didn’t fetch the result we wanted. For the trip over the M62 on a Thursday evening to Warrington, the squad was looking pretty strong but was missing some big players including Mikolaj Oledzki, James Bentley and Harry Newman.

I was optimistic for a good result and thought we were going to go out and show what we were bringing to the 2023 season. How wrong was I. 30-0 at half time and I was feeling pretty downtrodden.

The second half was a better effort, but we just didn’t - for the most part - have the finishing flair and it ended 42-10.

You can’t use the first game as a marker for the rest of the season. There is plenty to be worked on and big players to come back and make their mark in the squad.

This week’s first home match against Hull should put some fire into the bellies of the Leeds team, with Rohan Smith up against his uncle Tony Smith and the return of Brad Dwyer and Liam Sutcliffe for the first time since they left Leeds last year.

This should be interesting in many ways and I’m certainly looking forward to being back in my spot at Headingley for what should be a great game and hopefully a Rhinos win to kick off the season properly.

IAIN SHARP

Last Thursday night’s trip to Warrington suggested Leeds were still in their experimental pre-

season mode and a cursory look at the team sheet prior to the game, with no recognized centres available, suggested that it was going to be a long night. Going 30-0 down by half-time certainly justified that thought.

The second half generated something of a rally from Leeds, but the defeat was nevertheless a heavy one. Post-game, there has been the predictable frothing, blaming anything from the club’s pre-season recruitment, through to Chinese surveillance balloons. I don’t think anyone can really judge how the team will perform until they are all back fully fit and available.

Championships are not won or lost on the first outing of the season and Leeds fans more than anyone ought to remember that what matters is being there or thereabouts at the business end of the season.

Hopefully, there might be a few more bodies back for the visit of Hull FC to Headingley on Friday night and the opportunity to get a better judgement of how we’ll go, in front of our own fans.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

In our first game of the season, we witnessed one of the worst Rhinos performances of the Super League era.

With a lack of energy and fight from most involved, it's a slight miracle that Warrington only put 42 points past us.

The Wolves made metres for fun on every set, with Paul Vaughan making a staggering 278 metres on his own

However, as dangerous as Warrington were, Leeds made it way too easy for them. With no urgency in defence and a clear lack of organisation, we were picked apart with ease and it was embarrassing at times.

The only positive I can take from this game is Justin Sangare, who came off the bench and added some much-needed punch to our attack. Leeds looked to have picked up a real gem of a player in the Frenchman.

Looking forward to Hull FC, there needs to be a massive improvement in effort from the boys.

An opening day win against Castleford will give the Black and Whites confidence as they look to bounce back from a disastrous 2022.

It’s a must-win game for Leeds, another passive performance like last week and I can see it being a similar scoreline.

SAM BROCKSOM

As an optimistic person, I’ll start with the very few positives from last week’s defeat at Warrington.

Firstly, Justin Sangare deserves a starting spot against Hull. He was by far our best player. Secondly, it was only round one. Things can only go up from here, right?

Overall, we were sloppy, weak and dull in attack. The short kick worked on the kick-off but then no other time. It needs scrapping and quickly as we are gifting the opposition 30-40 metres every time we don’t regather it.

Richie Myler had his worst game in a Leeds shirt, having been at fault for three tries

and the penalty goal. Aidan Sezer made EIGHT metres the entire game – that is woeful.

Looking ahead to Hull, it will be classic Leeds for Brad Dwyer and Liam Sutcliffe to have a masterclass

against us. However, they conceded 24 points in the final 20 minutes against Castleford, so if we can execute a good attacking game plan, we may have a chance. The pack needs to step up, and the spine needs to start working together - and quickly.

JOSH JACKSON

Well, our 2023 got off to a disastrous start as what was a poor pre-season carried over to Thursday night’s game.

A bright start, going short from the kick-off and getting the ball was our only positive moment of the game up until our first try in the 59th minute.

From the get go we lacked creativity and leadership. Warrington barely needed to get out of first gear, easily making yards and looked like scoring at every opportunity they had on our line.

Our combinations on attack were so disjointed and never really created anything for the majority of the game.

The only shining light for me and for most rhinos fans was Justin Sangare. There are big expectations for him this year and in what was an extremely poor display he shone high above the rest.

It was not the way we wanted to start the season at all and hopefully we can put that performance right against Hull FC on Friday night.

Even though Hull FC got off to a winning start against Castleford, they still conceded 30 points which should give us some confidence to put things right this week.