Leeds Rhinos fans blast coach for 'sackable offence' over performance, selection, tactics in Catalans loss

The luckiest Jury member was Iain Sharp, who had his view of the action at Stade Gilbert Brutus blocked by a floodlight pylon. The rest didn’t enjoy what they saw, as they explain here.

IAIN SHARP

In what might have been a blessing in disguise last Saturday night in Perpignan, my view of the pitch from the Puig-Aubert Tribune (otherwise known as the Chris Bonnington Stand, after the Everest climber - as it’s one of the steepest on the circuit) was severely restricted thanks to the convenient positioning of one of the ground’s floodlight towers.

Clearly, the concept of restricted view tickets or roof mounted floodlighting has yet to reach south western France. Incidentally, my academic paper titled “provincial French floodlight towers design from the 1960s onwards’ will be published early next week. About the only thing the last two years of visits to Perpignan have yielded are 400 cigarettes, 18 litres of fortified wine (whatever that is) and 360 cans of lager after two visits to the Duty Free shop. No competition points, goals or tries to talk about.

There can be no complaints about the support Leeds took, nearly 1,000 strong and they gave their backing to the team throughout. However, you know it’s a crisis with the team when the main topic of conversation is “how did you get here”? and “when are you going home”?

DAVID MUHL

The first thing to say is this was not as bad a performance as the score suggests. We were only 8-0 down after 50 minutes, but the game went away from us in the last 20.

Leeds defended well in patches, but to be honest we were beaten in all areas. Our pack was definitely second-best and, not for the first time this season, our lack of pack size and strength showed.

Our half-backs struggled to get us moving, playing behind a well-beaten pack. This game was lacking in quality from both sides, especially the first half. Leeds’ old problems were there for all to see; unforced errors, including kicking out on the full - something we’ve done far too many times this year - and silly penalties, many on the fourth and last tackles, are all familiar failings from his Leeds team.

Our failure in attack was no different from many games this season. I think if we’d still been playing on Sunday morning we wouldn’t have scored. It was true though that the majority of our strike force is on the treatment table. We are suffering a real injury crisis this season.

I like Rohan Smith, I think he’s an honest and intelligent guy, but I am starting to wonder if he’s a little bit out of his depth; he doesn’t seem to be able to get the best out of this group of talented players and some of his interchange decisions have me scratching my head.

I can’t see the point in having a back on the bench and playing him for just three minutes. Operating a passive defence system isn’t working and needs to change. I’m not expecting anything from next week at St Helens, but then we have a run of four or five games where we must start to put victories on the board.

BECKY OXLEY

A warm weekend in Perpignan and we played Catalans in a very scrappy game. The dry weather did nothing to help our cause, going against what Rohan Smith has been saying for weeks.

Though we had nine players missing due to injury, on paper we had a decent team. The pitch was perfect and we should have been playing our best rugby. The chance for faster play and attack didn’t happen and we just played dropsies with the ball.

I’ve defended the boys so much this season, but I’m struggling this week to say anything positive. The only saving grace was Catalans didn’t play their best either and that meant the score was generous to us. We don’t have a game this weekend, because of the Challenge Cup semi-final, so let’s see if the break does us any good.

The Rhinos women played at York on Sunday and what a game it was. Ruby Enright was all over the field in attack and defence as well as kicking the goals and Amy Hardcastle made some strong tackles. A strong overall game gave us a well deserved victory.

It’s a Challenge Cup semi-final this weekend for the Rhinos women against Wigan. Here’s hoping for a win to get us through to the final at Wembley next month.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

As I predicted last week, the worst part of my travels at the weekend was watching Leeds Rhinos struggle in the south of France. The team encountered the usual issues that have plagued them since last season and there looks like no sign of improvement.

It was always going to be a struggle with how many players we have out injured, but would it have killed those who played to have done so with some passion? People have spent a lot of money travelling to watch this game and the lack of fight on the pitch is a slap in the face. Not once did we look like scoring with our attack looking so flat and uninteresting.

How Rohan Smith is still employed blows my mind as on top of his usual dull tactics, he’s now giving players minutes as a way of saying “well done”. In the sweltering heat, we could have done with another forward on the bench instead of Corey Johnson and I feel it is disrespectful to the player himself.

This is a professional team, not a junior club and the best 18 available should be picked every week. Places should be given out to those that earn it, not as a token prize. It is embarrassing and should not be happening at a so-called big club.

Hopefully in the two week gap before St Helens away we can get some key personnel back. If we are to get anything out of this season, we need wins against top opposition - and fast - but I fear we’re in for another tough evening.

GAVIN MILLER

Last time Leeds went away to Catalans they lost the game 61-0. On Saturday’s trip they lost 26-0. That is a defensive improvement of 35 points and about as positive as I can be.

Despite having beaten Catalans at home already this season (that’s a positive) our back line is currently riddled with injuries so I guess expectations were pretty low. However, Catalans were terrible themselves yet still won at an absolute canter.

Leeds were simply dreadful; the game plan, such as it is, is flawed. Leeds’ passive defence and lack of organisation, coaching, precision and structure in attack fails to build any pressure whatsoever.

Call me old fashioned if you like, but building pressure on your opposition is integral to winning performances and for Rohan Smith to come out after the game and say the score line wasn’t reflective of a spirited display by Leeds should be a sackable offence on its own. To be so blinkered to what the problems are fills me with absolutely no confidence he’s the man to lead Leeds going forward.

It’s like discovering a fire in a room and just closing the door and getting on with life. It’s denial and smells of a coach out of his depth with no idea on what is wrong or how to fix it.