Reaction: Leeds Rhinos boss Rohan Smith talks defeat at Catalans, last-round shootout and injury latest

Rhinos dropped to sixth in Betfred Super League after Monday’s 32-18 defeat at Catalans Dragons, one point ahead of seventh-placed Tigers who were crushed 50-10 at home by Salford Red Devils.

Saturday’s final round of the regular season is now a winner-takes-all clash at Headingley and Smith said: “It’s great for the competition.

“If you said four months ago we’d be playing for a play-off spot in round 27, at home, we’d have jumped all over that.”

The loss in France ended Rhinos’ six-game winning run and Smith pointed to an incident in the first half, when Leeds might have had a penalty for interference but instead had to turn the ball over, as pivotal.

Catalans dominated possession for the next 15 minutes, running in four tries to go 28-6 ahead at the break.

The coach said it was a “well-refereed game”, but insisted: “There was a critical moment at 6-6, last tackle on the tryline, where [Michael] McIlorum’s lying in the ruck.

“It’s one of those days, sometimes you need that to go your way and it didn’t and then we weren’t good enough to respond to that and the better team certainly won.

“It was a good, hard battle for most of the second half, but we weren’t good enough for too much of the first half.”

Smith confirmed Brad Dwyer passed a head injury assessment after needing treatment in the second half and said there were no other significant injury concerns.