Catalans Dragons v Leeds Rhinos: Victory is pivotal in Perpignan says milestone man Richie Myler

POINTS ARE more important to Leeds Rhinos scrum-half Richie Myler than milestones.
Richie Myler. Picture Bruce Rollinson.Richie Myler. Picture Bruce Rollinson.
Richie Myler. Picture Bruce Rollinson.

The England man will play the 300th game of his career today when Rhinos take on Catalans Dragons in the south of France.

He is the second Leeds player to reach that number in successive matches, after Tom Briscoe against London Broncos last week.

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That was marred by a dismal result, a home loss to London Broncos and Myler insisted –while proud to be entering the 300 club – the result at Stade Gilbert Brutus is all that really matters.

Richie Myler.Richie Myler.
Richie Myler.

Today will be Myler’s 39th game for Leeds since joining them ahead of last season. He has also played 50 times for Catalans, 145 for Warrington Wolves, 53 with Salford City Reds and twice as a Widnes Viking, as well as 10 England appearances and one with England Knights.

“It just makes you feel old when you’ve played 300 games,” said the 28-year-old. “It is nice it’s at Catalans, against my old club and I am looking forward to it.

“But we need to have a good performance and get a good win, my whole focus is on that. Obviously we’ve not been playing well the last couple of weeks and we need to put that right. That’s my entire focus at the minute.”

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The big question is, how do Leeds – with one win from their opening seven Betfred Super League fixtures – put things right?

“You work hard in training,” Myler answered. “That’s what we’ve been doing, you just keep working on the fundamentals of our game.

“We’ve just got to keep building on it and transform that into a game. We keep working as hard as we can; hard work solves a lot of things and I think that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Rhinos have shown in patches what they are capable of – most of their victory at Salford, half an hour against St Helens, the opening 10 minutes at Hull and much of the second half eight days ago.

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“That shows we’ve got the talent there to do it,” Myler stressed. “We just need to perform now and produce the goods.

“It comes down to consistency and how we are at crucial points of the game. We need to nail those points and we won’t be too far off.

“We need to give ourselves more chance in a game, rather than hurting ourselves all the time or throwing games away.

“That’s the frustrating part, we have shown in glimpses we can be a very talented side. We just need to play for 80 minutes and we need to produce.”

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Catalans won at Hull KR last Sunday, a week after being thrashed 46-0 in Perpignan by Salford Red Devils.

Rhinos flew to France today and Myler said: “It is a tough place to go and the last time they played at home they got beaten so they will be ready to do a good performance in front of their fans.

“It is going to be a tough challenge and they are a quality side. If the fans really get behind them they can be a real handful and tough to play against. We are under no illusions about how tough it is going to be.”

Catalans have added quality players including Sam Tomkins, Matty Smith and new signing Sam Kasiano to their squad since winning the Challenge Cup last August.

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“They have recruited well and they will be looking to build on the success they had last year,” Myler observed. “Hull KR is a tough place to go and they got the result. It is a big game for us, but Salford went there and did well and we can take motivation from that. We are focusing on us and the fundamental stuff we need to put right and if we do we won’t be far off.”

Player of the year during Leeds’ difficult 2018 campaign, Myler admits the Rhinos club deserves better than the team has produced so far this term.

“I love being here at Leeds, it is such a great club,” he said. “It is just disappointing when we’re on the field and not performing. I hate losing. We have got to put that right and I’m sure we’ll all be happier when we start winning.

“It’s tough for all of us, across the board, I don’t think anyone can say they’ve put their best performances in all year, me included. We need to work on the small things to put it right and keep grinding and ultimately we’ve got to get it right on the field.

“We’ve recruited well and brought some good players in, the talent’s there – we just need to do the hard work and start producing in the games.”