Catalans Dragons v Leeds Rhinos: coach Rohan Smith outlines 'only choice' after Wigan Warriors rout

The fixture comes seven days after a 50-0 home thrashing by Wigan Warriors and Smith insisted: “We want to see a response.”

Last week’s defeat was Rhinos’ worst in a home Betfred Super League game and Smith reflected: “The players were very disappointed and upset early in the week, but I have been really proud of how they’ve handled it.

“There has been no sulking and no heads down, they have come into work to embrace the opportunity of improving.

“It is an uncomfortable position for us all to be in and we are disappointed, but the only choice is to fight through it and fight back.”

He said: “The week has been good and we’ll go and have another battle on Saturday. That’s the beauty of such a long season and a week-to-week competition, you have always got next week to make a response.”

Smith admitted last week’s loss “dents all of us”. But he added: “We’ve had two games in the whole season where the opposition have scored 30 points or more.

“In some ways our defence has been really reliable. We got beaten to the punch on a couple of kick plays and then things got a bit out of hand.

“We were a young team, playing on a hot day against a really good team. We have taken some lessons from that and hard situations give you an opportunity to show your resilience and become better for the future.

“That’s the way we’ve gone about it and we are looking forward to the next opportunity. We are going to do our best to play the best way we can.

“It’s a matter of playing together, fighting through it and giving our best representation, playing hard and seeing what happens. So many teams have been beaten heavily over the years and fight back the week after. That’s our challenge.”

Catalans are in a three-way battle with Wigan and St Helens for the league leaders’ shield. Leeds ended their winning start to the season at Headingley in March, but Smith conceded: “It’s a tough trip any time.

“We did well there last year, we went there three times and gave three good performances in games which were all very different.

“They are a very experienced, tough, well-coached team that are chasing big honours this year so it is a contest we are going to have to be right up for and we are going to have to play very well to get as result.

“The first thing is to go through our process, play together and bounce back and see where the game goes.”

Smith stressed a strong finish to this year can lay a platform for a successful pre-season and good start in 2024.

“It is really important we play well at the back end of this season and see where that leads us,” he pledged.

“We are learning lots about our players; a lot of our leaders or our older guys are not with us at the moment so there’s a chance for others to step forward and for a lot of young players to get opportunities in a very tough environment.”