Leeds Rhinos ace Lachie Miller talks defensive improvement, becoming a 'real force' & 'big test' v Hull KR
Full-back Lachie Miller is ready to add an attacking edge to defensive improvements for Leeds Rhinos.
After missing Rhinos’ first five games this season through injury, Miller has now played a similar number in succession and was man of the match in the 28-6 Good Friday win against Huddersfield Giants. He opened the scoring with a first half try, went on to convert four of Leeds’ five touchdowns and admitted: “I feel good.”
He revealed: “I was really focusing on my defence at the start of the year and [cutting out] errors and [last week] I felt like I got a bit of attack in there. I’m just building each week and building combinations.”
The same applies to the team. Miller added: “With a couple of injuries in the spine each time we play, almost, we’ve had a lot of new spines this year. We’ve just got to keep working, but I thought [against Giants] we did well and we got the win. Our attack will get better as we go on. Brodie [Croft] is a Man of Steel player and he’s sitting on the sidelines, so when we get him back he’ll add another dynamic and another player teams have to worry about. At the moment I think we are sitting quite good and when we get some troops back, we’ll be a real force.”
Miller also scored a try and four goals in the previous week’s 28-0 victory at Salford Red Devils. He took over kicking duties from Jake Connor during that game and is happy to continue the role. “I love it, I really enjoy it and I want to do it, so with a bit of practice, we’ll be all right,” he insisted.
Reflecting on the team performance against Giants, which Rhinos got through with no suspensions, Miller felt Rhinos were “really good”, despite leading only 6-0 at the break. He said: “I thought they were good in the first half, they worked really hard for each other, but I thought we put things in motion so when the game did open up, we were ready to attack. I thought we were good across the board.
“I feel like we are quite fit and confident in our defence. It was a bit disappointing to concede the last try, but I feel like we know what we are doing and we are working towards a certain plan. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s 6-0, 12-0 or 0-0 at half-time, we know we’ve got the fitness to deal with any team. We showed that [on Friday] and the week before.”
Rhinos had been heading for a second consecutive clean sheet until Tom Burgess crossed for Giants with five minutes left. Miller admitted: “That is disappointing, but it is what it is - every Super League team are very good and they’ve got the ability to score from anywhere. We’ll move on from that and we’ll need to play better against Hull KR this week.
“It is another level. Hull KR, Wigan and Saints are top of the pecking order at the moment, but it is a really good test. We’ve had two comfortable wins so it will be good for us to see where we’re at against one of the best.”