Leeds Rhinos' Jarrod O'Connor backs young teammates, makes 'trophies very soon' pledge

Rhinos will be out of this season’s top-six race if they fail to win at Catalans Dragons on Sunday or Warrington Wolves or Salford Red Devils avoid defeat.

The eight-time champions are set to finish outside Betfred Super League’s top four for the sixth successive year and are on the back of a 50-0 home defeat by Wigan Warriors last weekend.

The final whistle was greeted with boos from a section of fans and O’Connor said he understands and shares their frustration, but insists things will get better - and soon.

“We all know we have got the best following in the game,” the 22-year-old said. “We appreciate all the support, no matter how good or bad we are doing.

“We are averaging the best home attendance in Super League and that’s credit to them and how loyal they are.

“I think the fans are thinking negative thoughts at the moment and being a rugby fan and growing up around it, I can’t blame them.

“You always want to be winning, but all we as players can do is keep showing how hard we are trying and keep trying to get better.

“Even if success doesn’t come out of this year we are going to build towards next year and we are going to start winning some trophies very soon.”

O’Connor added: “I think some people forget just how young our team is. People we consider senior players now - like Mikolaj Oledzki, Ash Handley and Cam Smith - are still relatively young.

“Mik and Cam are both 24 and Ash [27] is still a few years away from 30. Then there’s the next crop who are around my age and we’re starting to get a lot more experience and there’s also young lads like Jack Sinfield and Leon Ruan who have played well for us when they’ve had to step in.

“Instead of thinking negatively, I’d like to think it is a really positive thing we are getting this experience and it is only going to benefit us as we move forward.”

O’Connor has played in every game for Leeds this season, starting all but the first two and admitted: “Not everything goes for you in sport all the time.

“I think the quicker you learn that, probably the better. The game time I have been getting is only going to benefit me and working with Rohan [Smith, Rhinos’ team boss] and all the coaching staff.

“They are trying to help me going forward, I am picking up on points where I can improve and that’s all I can focus on at the minute.

“All the young lads have a good, tight group and that’s what is going to help us get the trophies in a few years, if we all stick together and all know how capable the players we are playing with are.”

Bouncing back from the record home Super League loss to Wigan is the first item on Rhinos’ agenda. O’Connor said: “Everyone was very disappointed after that, but I think it is all about regrouping and trying to finish the season the right way.

“Whether we get to the play-offs or not, we don’t want to finish on a bad note like that. Hopefully we get two very good performances going into the off-season - or the play-offs, fingers crossed.”

Rhinos can’t control what happens to Warrington or Salford over the next two games and the number 14 stressed: “All we are doing is focusing on this week.

“That’s a big thing Rohan likes to stress to the players, it’s always a ‘next game’ mentality. We are looking forward to the Catalans game and hopefully we get a really good performance, with the young team we’ve got going at the moment. It can only benefit us going forward.

“We are all sticking by each other and we know what we are capable of. No one is getting too down in the dumps, we are keeping our heads up high.

“We were in [on Monday] and looked at where we went wrong. It is just about picking ourselves up and getting some good training going into France.”

O’Connor is confident Rhinos are a much better team than last weekend’s result suggests, despite the players they had missing.

“We’ve had depleted teams in the past and won games like that,” he said. “We know even with a squad that’s down on players we can still beat the best teams.

“We showed that earlier this year when we went down to 12 men [after Zane Tetevano was sent-off in a win at Wigan]. Last week wasn’t a good reflection of where we should be, we know we have to improve and that’s what we are going to try to do.”