Leeds Rhinos are in a '˜tough spot' admits Parcell

Rhinos remain sixth in Betfred Super League after being hammered 38-10 by Castleford Tigers at the Magic Weekend in Newcastle.

To add injury to insult, Leeds lost full-back Jack Walker and captain/centre Kallum Watkins with knee injuries and prop Nathaniel Peteru suffered damage to a biceps just three games into his return from a similar problem.

Parcell sustained a shoulder injury, but had to go back on.

“We are in a bit of a tough spot now,” Parcell admitted.

“We have got a few of our main guys and big forwards missing, but it has been like that all year and by now we should really be on top of it.

“It is kind of a learning process as a team. I think we will come out on the other side and hopefully we don’t leave it too late.”

Of what went wrong in Rhinos’ sixth successive Magic Weekend defeat, Parcell stressed: “We’ve only got ourselves to blame.

“We talked all week about starting well and we did the opposite.

“We let them have way too much ball early on, we gave them the options and they were too good on the day.”

Boss Brian McDermott conceded injuries before and during the game took their toll. He said: “Kallum felt and heard a pop and when you get those popping noises from your knee it’s normally something snapped.

“Nathaniel has got a biceps injury, to his other one. We don’t know to what extent.

“Jack probably needed to come off 20 minutes before he did.

“It looks like a bone injury, it was really painful and he couldn’t run with it.

“I think he’s cracked his kneecap.

“Matt ended up coming off the field because of a shoulder injury and we had to put him back on when Jack came off.

“We are a bit of a busted group at the moment.”