Little things will add up to big improvement Leeds Rhinos boss Richard Agar insists ahead of Super League derby at Castleford Tigers

Rhinos make the short trip to Castleford Tigers tonight (Frriday) looking for only their third win in nine competitive fixtures this season.

Tigers are on a two-match losing run and Agar expects a “tough-fought game”, but insists Leeds are focusing on their own performance, rather than what the hosts will throw at them.

Losing close games has become a habit for Leeds this season - with only two of their defeats coming by more than 12 points - and Agar believes once they get the big plays right, results will improve.

“We have been in tight games - Hull KR apart, pretty much every game has been tight,” Agar reflected.

“That’s both frustrating and encouraging.

“It tells you our effort is good, but it’s frustrating in the fact we are not doing well enough in the moments - in the big plays, we are not getting enough right.

“I think that’s the difference and when we start to do that, I think you’ll see a good team.

“I still believe better consistency will come with more consistency in our lineup.

“We have had a bit more consistent lineup over the last couple of weeks, so hopefully we can keep that over the next month or so and welcome some people back.”

Agar admitted it is no secret where Rhinos are falling short.

The three tries they conceded in last Sunday’s 18-12 defeat by Hull all came through their right-side and Rhinos managed just one second half touchdown, despite attacking for most of the final 40 minutes.

“We were disappointed with how we conceded tries and how we attacked in the second half,” Agar accepted.

But he stressed: “I still think there’s plenty of parts of our game - defensively and collectively - that we are doing really well.

“I think our forwards are doing a great job and our left-edge has been great.

“Our right-edge has clearly got to aim up, I am not giving any secrets away there.

“I don’t think we made Hull work hard for any of their tries and they made us work extremely hard for ours, but the rest of our defence, I thought we got it in order really well which helped us dominate territory.

“Getting down the field isn’t a problem, but our good ball attack at the moment isn’t connecting well enough.

“We got to some positions last week where we created so many opportunities, but we didn’t execute them.

“That is what we’ve got to get in order - there’s some glaring areas that have hurt us.”

Of what Tigers will throw at Rhinos, Agar warned: “They have key individuals.

“Paul McShane is very central to what they’ve done for a long time and they know how to play the Jungle pitch very well.

“We see the threats coming from Paul and Jake Trueman.

“They’ll have their hands on the ball the majority of the time when Cas are attacking.”

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