'Only a matter of time': Rhyse Martin on why Leeds Rhinos will take game to Super League champs St Helens

Successive defeats have left Rhinos second from bottom in the table ahead of Friday’s trip to Betfred Super League and World Club champions St Helens.

Rhinos have not beaten Saints since March, 2018 - more than a year before Martin signed for Leeds - and the odds are once again stacked against the visitors.

But Martin says Rhinos will take a positive attitude into this week’s showdown, despite back-to-back losses against Warrington Wolves and Hull FC and he pledged: “We can’t be going to Saints, after not a great start, with our tail between our legs.”

The second-rower said: “We just need to go there and do a job and do it the best we can. I know that with this team, if we put it together we can beat anyone. It’s just a matter of when that’s going to happen.”

After the 42-10 hammering in round one, Rhinos showed better signs against Hull last week and Martin – who was celebrating his 30th birthday today (Wednesday) - stressed: “We are building slowly.

“We didn’t expect to be nil from two, but I think we took a big step after the Hull game and we are heading in the right direction. We just need to focus on us and deliver what we are trying to do at the club.”

The big area for improvement this week is Rhinos’ finishing. They showed good character to hit back from 16-6 down in the second half against Hull and went ahead with 10 minutes remaining, but FC sealed a 22-18 success with a late converted try.

Rhinos created a host of chances, including three clean breaks in the second half, which didn’t result in points and Martin accepted they have to be more clinical against Saints.

He said: “There were periods in that game where we could have won it, but nothing stuck and we came up with errors.

“I feel like we were the better team for the majority of that game, but our execution wasn’t good enough.

“It was disappointing, we should have won it, but we didn’t and we definitely weren’t anything near good enough against Warrington the week before. Hopefully we can get it all together this week.”

On the positive side, Rhinos fronted up against Hull’s big pack, something they will need to do when facing the likes of Alex Walmsley and Agnatius Paasi this weekend.

“The reason we lost the Warrington game was we weren’t up to that physical battle,” Martin reflected.

“That was the focus going into the Hull FC game and we were a lot better. There were passages in the game when we felt like we were back to where we were last year and hopefully we can build from that, stay connected and keep building confidence in our D [defence]. It felt like it was there in periods in [last week’s] game so that’s a good thing to take out of it.”

Friday is Saints’ first competitive home game since both last September’s Grand Final win over Leeds and their historic World Club Challenge victory at Penrith Panthers less than two weeks ago.

Despite a gruelling trip back to England, they began their Super League campaign with a 24-6 win at Castleford Tigers last Sunday and are aiming to extend their winning run against Leeds to 13 games.

Martin said he has nothing but admiration for Saints’ achievements over the past four seasons.

“What they’ve done [winning the world title] has been massive for Super League,” he added. “They are the team to beat, they have got that target on their head, as back-to-back-to-back-to-back Premiers. Everyone wants to beat them and we know what we are in for when we go because their standards and style don’t change at all, no matter who they are playing.

“We know we are in for a tough one, but we just need to do what we’ve been doing, but better and at a higher level this week. We need to do the little things that have been costing us.

“I am looking forward to it. These games are always exciting, you get up for them and I hope we can get away with them because it’d be my first against Saints. We just need to do our jobs and take it from there.”