Kruise Leeming’s View From The Pitch: Next two games massive for Rhinos

That’s what we are focusing on this week. We’ve reviewed the Saints match and looked at where we went wrong and what we need to do better, but that’s behind us now and what matters most is coming up with a positive performance at Hull on Saturday.

The next two games are massive, against Hull who are fifth and then Castleford, the sixth-placed team, at Magic Weekend. Obviously, if we’re going to get into the top six, these are games we need to be winning and we’re looking forward to them.

Games against Hull are always big; it is one of the grounds I really enjoy playing at and this week is the sort of challenge I relish.

You know it is going to be a tough game and you’re going to have to dig deep and be at your best to get something from it.

We need to get back to winning ways and there’s no better way to do that than away to a good Hull side who will also see it as a chance to get their season back on track after a few disappointing results.

There’s no point dwelling on what went wrong last week. That has been spoken about and we all know we need to be much better, but we can take a lot out of the first 40 minutes.

A few things went against us, but we matched them and caused Saints real problems. That is the sort of standard we have to set for ourselves, but we need to do it for 80 minutes, not 40.

It was similar against Huddersfield in the previous game, but the other way around. That night we had a poor start to the game and then matched them in the second half.

At the minute, we are 40 minutes off the top sides. We know that’s not good enough and we are not making excuses, but the reality is we have had three coaches this season and it does take time to adjust when new people come in with fresh ideas.

We’ve had to get used to a style of playing and an ethos and then had to change - and that has happened twice. We strung a couple of wins together under Jamie Jones-Buchanan and things were starting to come together, then Rohan Smith came in and things altered again.

Rohan is doing a great job, but things don’t happen overnight. We are a young squad and we’re not pulling on a load of experience, but I am confident we will get there and we are going to become a successful team.

Every game at the minute is really hard to call. There’s some blow-out scores and some really tight matches and you never know what’s going to happen.

Last weekend, Castleford beat Catalans in golden point, there was a game with no tries between Warrington and Hull FC - which is madness - and Salford put 74 points on Wakefield. I don’t think anyone would have predicted any of those, which is what makes the competition so exciting.

If you look at the table, the top four are pulling away but, below them, it is really tight and it only takes a couple of wins or losses to go up or down a few places.

All you have to do is catch fire for a couple of games and you can find yourself at fifth, from nowhere. That’s what we are looking to do. What we’ve said all year is, you just need to get into the top six and then anything can happen.

We didn’t get to see it, unfortunately, but congratulations to the Rhinos women’s team for their win at Saints last week and also the wheelchair side who have lifted the Challenge Cup for a third-successive season.

That’s a fantastic achievement and shows good things are happening at our club. The season has been a bit doom and gloom for us, but I still think, in the not too distant future, we will look back on this time - hopefully when we are top of the league or we’re celebrating winning a trophy - and say this is the period that made us who we are today.

The lads are still working really hard, there’s no animosity between the boys and everyone’s singing off the same hymn sheet.

It’s just about clicking together and getting things right - and that will happen.