Long term view - Sean says Leeds Rhinos can catch up to St Helens and Wigan Warriors

After successive relegation battles, Rhinos finished fifth in Betfred Super League last year and lifted the Coral Challenge Cup for the first time since 2015, but lost all three league meetings with the eventual Grand Finalists.

Long was a member of Saints’ backroom staff before a spell in rugby union at Harlequins so is well placed to judge how far adrift Leeds are and what it will take to catch up.

Two weeks into pre-season, he feels Rhinos are heading in the right direction and insisted: “We know where we are at and what we need to improve on to compete at a high level, week-in and week-out, with the likes of St Helens and Wigan.

“With the recruitment we’ve done and the way we are going about things and the way the boys are buying into it, fingers crossed we can be pushing to challenge the top two. We want to go to the next level this season.”

Long admitted Saints and Wigan are the “benchmark” all clubs need to measure themselves against this year.

Assessing what Leeds need to do to get on level terms, he said: “We showed in patches last season what we can do, but we need to be more consistent, be a bit more ruthless.

“We have highlighted a couple of areas of our game we need to improve on to get to that level of week-in, week-out consistency.

“Leeds Rhinos can beat anyone on their day and every other club knows that in Super League, but it is actually doing it week-in, week-out.”

Long declined to identify which aspects Rhinos have been focusing on, but said the key is “training at high intensity.

“Short, sharp skill, on the money - everyone buying into how we are going to play, not just attack, but defence as well”.

He insisted: “I think the lads have agreed to it, they wanted it and that’s how we are going to train.

“We should be there or thereabouts, but it might not happen overnight.

“There’s a lot of good clubs out there, a lot of good teams who have recruited really well - especially Warrington - but I would like to see an improvement this year in how we play and a good brand of rugby.

“The way we are training, I have seen an improvement already compared to the clips I have seen from last year’s pre-season and hopefully we will be pushing those other teams.”

Long is gaining a different perspective after spending most of his playing career at Saints, much of it when they and Leeds were the European game’s dominant sides

Rhinos beat Saints in three successive Grand Finals during that time and the former Great Britain half-back admitted: “It was a kind of envy, I was envious of Leeds Rhinos because they were the best team at the time.

“For me now to go over to the other side, it is good. Sometimes you get stale staying in one club and one environment so it’s good for me to go to the other side and see how they work and the culture they have.

“What Kev [Sinfield, director of rugby] Rich [Agar, coach] and Jase [Jason Davidson, head conditioner] have done with the culture at the Rhinos is, I think, outstanding.”

Long - who worked with Rhinos in pre-season last year, as well as for the final game of 2020 - had other offers after leaving Harlequins but said “seeing the potential of growth in the team is what swayed me to go to Leeds”.

He is working alongside fellow assistant-coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan and regards joining Rhinos as another step on his learning curve.

“I definitely want to be a head coach, but for me, there is no rush,” Long said.

“I have seen young coaches jump into it straight away, then they get the chop and that’s it - they pack in altogether.

“I feel like I am in a good place at the moment, I have worked under Justin [Holbrook, former Saints coach] and I feel Rich and I have a really good understanding.

“I worked with Rich when I signed at Hull, he has been in coaching a long, long time - a lot longer than me - and I am going to learn a lot off him.

“I’ll know when the time’s right to take a head coaching job, but for now I am really enjoying my time as assistant.”

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