Reaction: Rohan Smith on Leeds Rhinos' loss at Toulouse, a new injury and what he needs to do better

Rhinos trailed 14-0 at half-time, but rallied with a converted try 11 minutes from the end before Toulouse sealed the win in the closing moments.

The visitors were without both first-choice half-backs, Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer, as well as four of their five props and lost Liam Sutcliffe to illness when the team arrived at Stade Ernest Wallon.

Smith said: “I thought it was a really hard-fought game in very taxing conditions for both teams.

“I thought we were full of running at the end of the game, which was testament to our performance staff and definitely the players for really buying into what we’ve done to prepare for tough conditions."

The coach reflected: “They scored a couple of tries on the edges, which can happen, but we defended brave.

“We’ve had tons of experienced players pull out during the week, then another one just before kick off.

“The young players are tough kids and they are brave and the more senior players stepped forward.

“I am nothing but proud of the group.”

Smith was critical of his own contribution, admitting: “I need to do a better job to get our team to flow when we’ve got a few experienced halves not there.

“I need to work on that, but we asked them to keep turning up and they did that all the way until the end.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the efforts of our players.”

Rhinos finished the game with 12 men on the field, having used all their substitutions before 17-year-old centre Max Simpson hobbled off in the final quarter.

Smith revealed: “He has got some kind of lateral ankle injury, they can be nasty or not as bad as first thought.

“We will get him scanned, but what a tough, brave performance from that kid.

“He has not played much footy lately, he has been 18th man and he there’s not been many reserves or under-18s games.

“To play like that is an incredible effort.

“Morgan Gannon is 18, Jack Sinfield is 17; then there's veterans like Corey Johnson who's 21, Jarrod O’Connor, Sam Walters and Liam Tindall, who hasn’t played in 10-12 weeks.

“For them to step up on short prep’ is credit to them.”