Liam Sutcliffe: Leeds Rhinos centre says second half performance against Castleford Tigers was something to build on ahead of Super League clash with St Helens

The 40-16 loss was Rhinos’ sixth in seven competitive games this year and they trailed 28-0 before running in three tries in brief fightback after the break.

Sutcliffe, who scored Leeds’ second touchdown, said: “The first half was probably where we’ve been this year, then in the second half, for the first 15 minutes or so, we looked pretty good.

“There was a bit of a momentum change when [Castleford’s] Greg Eden scored, but before that we were putting pressure on and we scored a few points.

“There was a little 15 minutes or so we can take something from.

A change of coach, from Richard Agar to interim-boss Jamie Jones-Buchanan, didn’t have the desired effect and Sutcliffe admitted Rhinos “just weren’t good enough” for much of the Cup tie.

“We were sloppy,” he reflected. “They seemed to roll us down the pitch and our discipline wasn’t great again, which has kind of been the story for us this year.

“We were giving them field position, six-agains, penalties and we had another sin-bin, which doesn’t help, especially in the spot we are.

“It was a tough week and it was never going to change overnight. We have still got a lot of work to do.

“We didn’t perform, but there’s a little bit from that game we can build on.”

Jones-Buchanan will remain in charge for Friday’s visit of St Helens as Rhinos search for a new head coach, but Sutcliffe believes the players are good enough to turn their season around.

He vowed: “It’s all in-house, we know what we need to do and how we have to go, with discipline and things like that.

“We are not helping ourselves, it is only us in the camp who can fix it and solve these problems.

“We’ve just got to look forward to Saints. It is a big game and we have got a starting point of where to build in training.

“Hopefully we can have another good week and put that little stint we had into fruition and do it for a longer period of time.”

Rhinos are on an eight-game losing run against Saints and Sutcliffe accepts if they perform the way they have for most of their last three games, it will be a long and painful evening.

“We can’t play like that against Saints, they are the benchmark,” he said.

“They are setting the standards at the moment and if we perform, like we did in the first half... But it’s all with us, we need to come to training, solve the problems ourselves and go from there.

“Everyone’s trying their best, it’s just not coming off for us at the moment.”

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