‘Can do better’ Rhinos coach Richard Agar’s verdict on Leeds’ win over Salford Red Devils

Leeds led 20-0 at the break and managed to outscore their hosts in the second half for the first time in four games.

“I thought we had a really solid first half performance and we scored some great tries, probably typified by Kruise Leeming,” Agar reflected..

“I thought he was wonderful in some of the stuff he did, then undid some of it with some pretty uncharacteristic errors.

“I thought at 20-0 we were good value for it, but I am going to pay tribute to Salford.

“They were more expansive in the second half and asked us some questions, but at the same time we looked after some people in the second half and lost Liam Sutcliffe.

“Luke Briscoe played as an emergency middle with so many big fellas missing and I think he did a wonderful job for us.”

Of the negatives, Agar said: “I thought the tries we let in were a bit soft and we’ve a way to go discipline-wise.

“I don’t think it’s intentional, the discipline - there’s some elements of carelessness in there and we’ve got to brush up a bit on that, but it was a step in the right direction.”

Sutcliffe will miss next Thursday’s game at Hull after suffering concussion.

Agar declined to reveal why captain Luke Gale did not feature last night, saying only he - along with Mikolaj Oledzki and Tom Holroyd - was “ruled out and unavailable”.

The 10,515 attendance was the largest Rhinos have played in front of since March last year.

Agar praised the home support and felt his side “fed off the energy the crowd gave us”.