'A work in progess' but Leeds Rhinos coach Rohan Smith vows to have a 'real crack' at champs St Helens

Rhinos travel to Betfred Super League and new World Club champions St Helens tonight (Friday) on the back of successive defeats by Warrington Wolves and Hull FC.

Those results have left Leeds second from bottom in the early-season table and Smith admitted they “obviously haven’t started as we’d desired”, but he reckons there are mitigating factors.

He stressed: “We are trying to find our best combinations, with a lot of new players into our squad and even existing players from last season who didn’t really play much together. We are still a work in progress.”

Rhinos made a poor start in 2022, with just one win from their opening nine league games, but went on to finish fifth and reach the Grand Final where they were beaten by Saints.

The coach reckons the early part of the campaign is about “trying to find a good level of performance to give yourself a good chance to win”.

He stated: “Really you want to be firing on all cylinders at the end of the year. A lot of teams over the years have started like a house on fire and then fallen in a heap.

“We haven’t started great, but it hasn’t been all bad despite the zero and two win-loss.”

Of how far from their best Leeds have been in the opening two rounds, Smith conceded: “I’m not sure where our top end can be because we are a new group.

“We’ve not played together a lot, the spine hardly played together last year and we’ve got a bunch of new players.

“We are just trying to evolve and improve from week to week and work out who we are, what we are and who our best players are.”

A first win against Saints since March, 2018 would kick-start Rhinos’ season. Smith said: “There’d be no better way than to play well this week and have a crack at the world champions. It is a great opportunity for us.”

He added: “I am confident we are going to play better footy this week and really have a crack.”