Leeds Rhinos: Personnel in place to fix things up sooner rather than later insists Achurch

Rhinos crashed to their fourth defeat in five First Utility Super League fixtures this year when they visited Wigan Warriors three days ago.

The 28-6 loss left Leeds eight points off top spot, but Achurch insisted their decline is not permanent.

“I think it’s fixable, because of the personnel in the club,” he said.

“I think everyone in the club wants to win, and we are going to turn up on Monday and crack on again.

“There’s too many people in this team that have won trophies to write us off yet.”

Assessing Rhinos’ problems, Achurch said: “Some of our efforts are misdirected at the moment. I think we’ve just got to get back to basics and get some of our contact in defence better. When we had the ball, especially in that first 20 minutes, we were just coughing it up too easily and then giving away silly penalties on the back of it. We have just defended 80 per cent of the first 20 minutes.

“And with a lack of energy for the remaining 60 minutes that makes it hard to win games.”

Achurch returned from illness against the Warriors for only his second game of the year.

He said: “It was good to get some decent minutes.

“Mac [coach Brian McDermott] gave me the nod to start and, hopefully, I did a good enough job for that 60 minutes.

“The win would have been better, but to get some minutes was nice.”