Leeds Rhinos v London Broncos: Captain Brett Ferres out to fix things up

One win from six Betfred Super League games has left Rhinos struggling at the wrong end of the table, but they have led in four of their five defeats and were 10-0 up after nine minutes at Hull last week.

They collapsed to a 34-10 drubbing and Ferres said: “It’s the consistency aspect of it.

“We have started well in our last few games and we’ve troubled the top teams – against Saints and Wigan and Warrington we looked great in a lot of patches, but we just haven’t been able to capitalise.

“When something has gone wrong we haven’t been ruthless to get back into it and get it right again.

“There’s certainly a few bits we can tweak and change – which we’ve been looking at doing – but it’s not good enough from us; we need to be better in what we’re doing and that’s on the players.”

Promoted London have beaten Wakefield Trinity and Wigan – two teams Leeds lost to – but Ferres insisted tonight is “about us and getting our performance right”.

He said: “We are at home and we want Headingley to be a fortress. It’s up to us as players to create that. We need a good performance for ourselves and we need it for the fans and the club as well.

“We need to go out and start well and be consistent and keep pushing and be more ruthless.

“Probably our discipline has been lacking the last couple of weeks; we’ve let teams out of their end and piggybacked them up the field a bit so we need to be cleaner in what we do and a bit more aggressive in defence.”

Ferres reckons a win tonight could get Rhinos on a roll.

“If you look at Hull and how they’ve done, they hadn’t won for 13 games and now they’ve won three in a row,” he pointed out. That confidence in the group grows, but I think for us it’s just about getting a really good performance in.

“It is perfect for us this week, back at home. London are a good side and they will want a scalp so we know we need to be on our game. It is about us and doing our jobs right. We owe it to ourselves and the club and the fans.”

Of London, Ferres said: “They caused a few upsets last year and they look like a good group of players who are working hard for each other and enjoy each other’s company.

“They are playing well as a team and they are well-drilled by [coaches] Danny Ward and Jamie Langley.

“Every game is tough and there’s been some cracking results over the last few weeks with different teams pulling off scalps, but we want to be more consistent in what we are doing and we need to be beating teams like this and looking up the ladder.

“We are six or seven weeks in and we’re not in a great spot. It is not catch-up time, it’s not a crisis, but we really need to start nailing some performances.”

Ferres’ partner Theresa gave birth to their son Charlie eight days ago.

Ferres skippered the side the following evening, in place of the injured Kallum Watkins and admitted the loss “spoiled a good week”.

He added: “I spoke to Dave [Furner, Rhinos’ coach] earlier in the week and he said I had the captaincy so I was delighted with that.

“It is a massive honour at a big club like Leeds and a very proud moment for me and my family.

“Then the arrival of my first son was brilliant. I was looking forward to getting out there and doing my bit for the team.

“We started really well, but then the game fell away from us a little bit and we never really recovered from that.”