Kruise Leeming’s View From The Pitch: Why taking on top side St Helens will be good for Leeds Rhinos

I am so honoured to be Leeds Rhinos captain and the way things have gone so far this year is tough to take, but it is going to make the good times sweeter when we get there, which we will.

It is not a nice time at the minute, after only one win in the league and being out of the Challenge Cup so early in the season.

We are all hurting and we know what we are producing is just not good enough but, whatever’s going wrong, it is not down to lack of effort.

We are all working hard and that’s how we will get out of this situation.

We’ve got St Helens at home on Friday and that’s as tough as it gets in Super League, but it’s the best game we could have at the moment, I think.

Given the choice, I probably would not have picked any other team to play this week.

I think taking on the top side will be good for us.

It’s one everyone expects us to lose and that almost takes the pressure off, so we can just go out, work hard and try and get a win.

If we get a win this week, it is almost like a ‘cheat code’ to make everything positive again.

Suddenly people will be thinking ‘wow – look what’s happened there’ and seven weeks of disappointment will be overshadowed by this great thing we have done, beaten Saints at home on Sky.

We have to make that happen though.

The alternative is we come up with another disappointing performance and that confirms we are in a dark place.

It could go either way, but I believe Saints will bring the best out of us and it could be a turning point in our season.

It is hard to stay upbeat at a time like this, but you have to.

You also have to be real and address the problems you’re having.

Jonesy – our interim-coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan – is doing his best, but he only had us for two days before the Cas game last week and that’s not much time to change things.

The responsibility is on us as players. I think, for us, it is mainly about getting the finer details right, not shying away from things and trying to fix the situation we’ve got ourselves into.

In life, whatever job you do, I think if you work hard you will get rewards, but you have to put that work into the right areas.

We are looking at things and spending hours analysing video and a lot of time on making sure our bodies are right, but a big thing is sticking together.

If we do that, I am sure we will get through it. There is still a long way to go this season and I am confident, once we get our game together, we can go on a run and climb the table and still have a big say at the end of the year.

From a personal point of view, I am looking forward to Friday.

I am fit to play – I was ill during the game last week, not injured – and it will be a big challenge, but it is always good to go up against the best.

It is not ideal with Brad Dwyer being suspended and Corey Johnson injured, but I’ll be sticking up my hand to play the full 80 minutes.

I’ve been getting a lot of game time this season and that’s what I want to do; I want to be an 80-minute hooker.

I want to be playing in finals and in the World Cup at the end of the year and, whatever the game is, I want to play; that’s what I am paid to do and I want to do it as well as I can.

One of the reasons I do this column is to communicate with the fans and I’d like to finish by apologising to them for what we are producing at the moment.

I know the fans want us to do well and they are hurting after watching performances like the ones we’ve put in for the last few weeks.

I would like to think the results we are having don’t reflect my performances and the effort I am putting in and, if everybody can get on board with that, we will turn things around.

What we are putting out on the field isn’t acceptable for a great club like Leeds Rhinos and we are trying to fix it, so please stick with us.