Peter Smith’s big match verdict: Players must take blame for Leeds Rhinos’ Cup exit

The situation really is that bad.

Following their embarrassing 40-16 Betfred Challenge Cup exit against Castleford Tigers, Rhinos will pass the quarter-way point of the league season when table-toppers St Helens visit Headingley on Friday.

Saints not turning up would seem to be Leeds’ best chance of winning that one – and even then, on current form, they’d be second favourites.

Rhinos are 10th in Betfred Super League, above Castleford and Toulouse Olympique on points difference.

Those two teams meet on Friday so Rhinos will find themselves second from bottom by the end of the evening.

Having already changed their coach, without a positive reaction in interim-boss Jamie Jones-Buchanan’s debut at the helm, it’s difficult to see how Rhinos are going to get out of this mess.

Where on earth is the next win coming from?

Leeds have good enough players to be doing much better; they should be challenging for a place in the top-four, but their last three performances have been dire and nobody seems to have any idea how to turn things around.

Jones-Buchanan clearly can’t be blamed for the latest debacle, having been in charge for less than a week.

Saturday’s Cup exit was entirely down to the players.

Credit has to go to Castleford, who were superior in every department.

They were in better form going into the game, despite an identical league record and, boosted by the return of several influential players – which meant no need for key men to play out of position – ripped their fiercest rivals apart with a tremendous display of attacking rugby.

Cas looked like scoring every time they got anywhere near Rhinos’ line and were much more solid defensively.

They had the game won by half-time, when they led 28-0.

Though Rhinos staged a mini-revival, in the second period, Tigers’ 24-point winning margin was a fair reflection.

Cas’ discipline was excellent in the first half, when they conceded just one penalty, their pivots combined well and the pack set a strong lead.

None of which applies to Rhinos.

Maybe, in the way they played in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, there were indications of the sort of team Leeds could be if they got their act together.

But there was absolutely nothing to be positive about before that and, having cut the gap to 18 points, Rhinos literally handed Cas their sixth try to effectively end the fight back.

Scrum-half Aidan Sezer was involved in Leeds’ first and second tries, but then undid that good work with a pass which Greg Eden intercepted to score the first of his brace.

Blake Austin made a good break in the first half and combined well with Sezer for a brief spell, but the halves just aren’t firing.

With Tom Holroyd still injured and Zane Tetevano beginning a two-match ban Rhinos went into the game with only two props and Tigers were much stronger up front.

During the off-season, any fan would have made signing a big forward a priority, to complete the overseas quota, so why couldn’t the management see that?

Against Tigers, there were some poor missed tackles across the field and Leeds’ discipline, yet again, wasn’t good enough.

Cas made the most of a five-one penalty count in their favour in the first half and their fourth and fifth tries came when Leeds were a man down, with Brad Dwyer in the sin-bin for tripping Kenny Edwards.

Leeds are averaging a yellow card per game this year and that’s one thing they need to fix up, but it’s a very long list.

Cas scored three tries in the final 11 minutes of the opening period and Leeds looked to have given up during that time, which is unacceptable from professional players.

Jones-Buchanan got a response after half-time as Leeds upped their game and threw a bit at Tigers, but an experienced coach is needed to halt the current slump. It is not fair to drop a crisis of this magnitude on Jones-Buchanan, who is in only the third year of his coaching career.

The responsibility, though, lies with the players who, individually and collectively, are letting themselves, their fans and the club down.

There are people missing, but 13 of Leeds’ top-20 squad were on duty against Tigers.

Castleford didn’t quite sustain their first-half performance in the second, but it was still a very good performance from a team who are now getting their act together under coach Lee Radford.

Eden continued his prolific form by scoring both their second-half tries.

Jake Trueman, who is beginning to regain form after a long injury layoff due to a back problem, opened their account and Jake Mamo, Gareth O’Brien, who finished with six goals, Jordan Turner and George Lawler also crossed before the break.

Rhyse Martin scored Leeds’ first and third tries of the match, either side of one by Liam Sutcliffe and added two conversions.

The penalty second half penalty count was three-one in the hosts’ favour.

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