Leeds Rhinos' Harry Newman opens up on being in the top-six, his form and improvements under Rohan Smith

Newman scored the opening try in Rhinos’ 34-14 defeat of Salford Red Devils which lifted them three places to sixth in Betfred Super League.

Only one point separates Rhinos from ninth-placed Hull KR, who they visit on Friday, but they are now in pole position to claim a play-off spot, having been in a relegation battle at the halfway point in the campaign.

Newman said: “Everyone’s going to say we’ve had a tough season and we’re now in the top-six, but for us, since Rohan [Smith, Rhinos’ coach] has come in it has been week on week and that’s what we’ll stick to.

“The next game is Hull KR and that’s all we will be focusing on this week.

“Everyone knows we are in the top-six, it has taken hard work, fighting, playing together and improving.

“We have done that, but if we’re going to do what we want to do this year we’ve just got to take it week by week and continue improving.”

Rhinos have now played as many league games under Smith this season as they had before he took charge.

Leeds won three, drew one and lost seven of their opening 11 Super League matches.

Of the 11 under Smith, they have won seven and lost four.

Against Salford, Rhinos raced into an 18-0 lead after as many minutes, but were then pegged back to just a four-point advantage midway through the second half.

Ash Handley’s interception try turned the tide and Leeds finished the game well on top, but Newman admitted it might have been a different story a few weeks ago.

“We started the game really well,” he reflected.

“Salford came back into it and we didn’t start the second half as well as we’d have liked.

“[In the past] we’d have been guilty of falling away in that game and letting them get on top of us, but we stuck together, stuck to our processes and ended up coming out on top, which is really pleasing.

“You only have to look at the Catalans game - we were 30-6 down, we stuck to the process and eventually it came off.”

It took less than a minute for Newman to open Rhinos’ account against Salford and he stressed: “We’ve got to build consistency in how we start games and how we come out in the second half, because those are really important periods in the game.

“At 18-0 up it was a great start, but then we were probably guilty of letting the opposition get back into the game, though our own fault - dropping the ball coming out of yardage.

“We were well on top and if we’d kept hold of the ball they wouldn’t have been anywhere near our tryline.

“We’ve got a few things to fix up, but I’m sure we will.”

Leeds scored 14 points in the final 15 minutes against Salford, having staged their stunning fightback to win 36-32 at Catalans with only 12 men after Matt Prior was sent-off.

Newman said that showed “resilience and fitness as well”.

He added: “That’s a massive part of it and you have to thank the s and c [strength and conditioning] team for that and the physios for getting the boys on the pitch.

“If you’re not fit you aren’t going to be able to play well at the back end of games.

“We’ve just got to stick together, though and that’s what we’ve done.”

A hamstring injury limited Newman to just one appearance in Rhinos’ opening 15 fixtures of 2022 and he picked up a three-match ban after only two comeback games.

The England World Cup hopeful has played in Leeds’ last three and stated: “I’m pretty happy.

“There’s a couple of things I want to work on, especially playing against big, powerful centres like [Salford’s Tim Lafai]. There were a couple of missed tackles.

“I’m happy where I am at now, but I’ll continue to improve and get better and see what that brings at the end of the year.”