Trent Merrin makes his case for the captaincy by leading Leeds Rhinos ‘from the front’ - YEP jury

Some believe firmly that the season has reached a critical stage with only 10 games to play in the regular season.

But others’ frustrations have been tempered by the increased collective effort and the form of Australian Trent Merrin, who many feel has what it takes to take on the armband once Kallum Watkins moves on to join up with Gold Coast Titans.

Have a read and see if you agree.

Tim Nuttall

I suppose it’s an indication of how far our standards have fallen that we were just hoping we didn’t get an absolute towelling at St Helens last Friday.

In the end, the effort couldn’t be faulted, but it never really looked like a game we would go on to win. We conceded early tries and some late on. Either side of that, we did force some errors out of St Helens and, with a bit more composure in attack, we might have given them more of a scare.

Although, in fairness, Saints were clearly the better team.

The frustrations of the season were summed up in the final five minutes of the first half where a scrappy period allowed Saints field position and Tommy Makinson’s wonder try probably ended any hope for travelling fans.

With 10 games to go, things are at a critical stage.

In my opinion, we probably need to win at least six of our remaining games to give ourselves the best chance of staying up in Super League.

Sunday’s game against Catalans Dragons is one we must target for two points; we have to start winning games and quickly.

Katie Burrows

A terrible start which saw us concede 12 points in the first three minutes meant we were always chasing the game last week.

We put up a good fight, but we continued to make the same handling errors that have plagued us all season; it was disappointing, as Saints had an unusually off night and, had we started better, we could’ve been in with a shout.

The final score made it seem more one-sided than it actually was; we improved massively in the second half and, despite switching off for the last five minutes, can take a lot of positives from the game.

We lost out narrowly against Catalans Dragons back in March, and they’ve been on a bit of losing streak recently, so it could be a good time to play them.

At the start of June I’d predicted three wins out of four for this month, so I’ll stick with my original claim and pray for a Rhinos win!

Lastly, congratulations to Leeds Rhinos Women, who are through to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup following a massive win over Warrington Wolves.

Oliver Hawkhead

All things considered, I don’t think last week’s result was too bad.

We all know that Saints are a cut above the rest of Super League this year, so I think I wasn’t the only one was fearing the worst going into this game. We really lost the game in the first five minutes when Saints scored on their first two possessions.

I cannot see anyone in this league coming back from two scores down against Saints in their own backyard.

The game itself was scrappy with referee Ben Thaler blowing his whistle almost every set in the first half.

I must agree with the rising consensus that Trent Merrin is the best replacement for captaincy after Kallum Watkins’ departure to the Gold Coast.

The moment with Konrad Hurrell in the first half is the strongest indicator that Trent is someone who the players can respect and look up to.

Last Sunday was game two of the State of Origin.

Hopefully the players watched that and took some learning points from the tournament which is the pinnacle of our game.

Thomas Lawrence

It was encouraging to see some real fighting spirit and grit from Leeds last Friday in what was always going to be a big ask to come away with two points.

St Helens are reflective of their lead at the top of the table and a class apart from pretty much everyone at the moment, never mind strugglers like us. As ever, discipline and errors were our downfall but, I guess, we just have to move on again and try to get back to winning ways this weekend.

Regardless, I feel that we need to imminently make a coaching appointment because everything seems to be feeding off scraps at the moment for us.

Every other club seems to have some form of stability; I feel like we have none. All that’s left to say for the weekend ahead is thank you, farewell and good luck to Kallum Watkins – a player who has given us everything over the last 10 years and it’s a shame things have turned out the way they have this season.

I genuinely hope Kallum’s Leeds career can end with a valuable victory to provide some sort of fitting farewell. Come on Leeds!

Andrew Sutcliffe

If you ignore the first few minutes of the Saints game, I saw some definite improvement in our performance.

The old adage of when you’re down at the bottom nothing goes for you is true. Mistimed off-loads going to hand could have changed the score in our favour but it wasn’t to be.

Against the best in the league we needed to take these opportunities.

Second half we showed fight and commitment getting into faces and making tackles stick.

The sin binning of James Donaldson was weak and them scoring twice whilst we were down to 12 was hardly a surprise. It’s sad that a technical offence is deemed more of a yellow card offence than a spear tackle!

We still look poor on attack, not putting enough pressure on opponents’ defences. Perhaps a new signing or two will change this.

On to Catalans at home this Sunday.

‘Must win’ is used too often but we need to pick up wins now and having more at home is an advantage. If we keep up the passion then we should win.

Luke Crossfield

Twenty minutes of very poor rugby league was the main reason why the scoreline ended up at 36-10 for Leeds Rhinos at St Helens.

After five minutes I thought Saints were going to get at least 60 points past us which would have been a nightmare, especially if points difference becomes a determining factor in us staying up. Some of the defence was really poor and frustrating to see.

A half-back is needed badly but that won’t even come close to papering over the cracks. I am looking forward to a major rebuild in the off season regardless of our league status. The club needs to stop relying on the past and start afresh.

On to this Sunday’s game against an out-of-sorts Catalans Dragons team. It is a good opportunity, especially at home, to get two vital points to keep us in Super League. We need to target this game as a ‘must win’ if we hope to have any chance of surviving relegation.

Finally I would like to congratulate the women’s team for getting to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup.