Leeds Rhinos v Castleford Tigers: Liam Sutcliffe eyeing up derby day triumph

With just one victory to their credit this year, Rhinos are two points adrift at the bottom of the table and preparing to face a team they have lost to in 11 successive Super League matches.

This evening is Rhinos’ ninth fixture in a 29-round season and relegation will be a real possibility if the eight-time champions don’t start picking up points soon. The bottom-placed team will drop to the Betfred Championship and Sutcliffe confirmed Leeds’ players are fully aware of their grim situation.

He said: “We know we need a win, we are aiming to kick on and do that and hopefully it will come [tonight].”

Sutcliffe pledged: “I don’t think we are far off. You look at parts of the game and we do look good, it’s just little bits – like discipline and errors – that really cost us.

“The other team seem to be able to get a roll on and score off the back of that, so that’s what’s really letting us down at the moment.

“I think if we fix those couple of areas up we will get there.”

Rhinos led in six of the seven games they have lost this year and Sutcliffe admitted the players are frustrated at their inability to shut games down.

“Every time we get into a lead we think we’re going to kick on now and we end up letting in a couple of tries and letting the other team back in,” he said. “It is really frustrating in that aspect, but hopefully we will get there.

“I am not too sure what it is, probably lack of concentration at vital times of the game.

“There’s times when you switch off and that’s when they seem to get you.

“Hopefully we can fix up a few areas and put that right.

“There are times when we look good and we go a couple of scores in front and we think we’ll kick on.

“It hasn’t turned out like that in recent weeks, but we are all confident we will get there.”

Rhinos will have to be good to beat Tigers, something they haven’t done at Emerald Headingley in almost six years.

“They had a pretty disappointing defeat against St Helens so I am sure they will be looking to bounce back straight away, especially at our place,” Sutcliffe predicted.

“But we have had a look at our game and what went wrong and hopefully we can put it right and put in a performance for the full 80 minutes.”

Rhinos have had just two training sessions since last Saturday’s 26-22 loss at Catalans Dragons, but Sutcliffe insisted: “I would rather we had the short turnaround, it is a chance to get back out there and hopefully put things right.”

Coach Dave Furner has yet to confirm whether Sutcliffe will remain at stand-off, where he featured in France, or move to the second-row slot he has occupied in previous matches this term.

Number six Tui Lolohea has been named in Rhinos’ initial squad and Sutcliffe said: “I thought it went all right last week.

“Dave told me at the start of the week I was probably going to play at stand-off so throughout the week I just tried to go through certain stuff with my edge.

“If I get the nod again this week I’ll be looking forward to it. It is different to second-row, which is all I’ve been doing at the start of the season.

“I didn’t feel like I struggled with it at all; I felt like I was all right.”