'Really good then really poor': Leeds Rhinos need to 'sort it out' v Wakefield Trinity Rhyse Martin says

Rhinos go into Sunday’s derby at Wakefield Trinity on a run of five defeats from their last six league and cup games and frustrated Martin says they must “sort it out” this week.

A match-winning lead was squandered in the closing stages of last Saturday’s Magic Weekend clash with second-bottom Castleford Tigers and Martin conceded. “We are really, really good and then we’re really poor.

“It is hard to put our finger on it, but we definitely need to sort it out as soon as possible. We believe we can, but [last week] we let ourselves down.

“We went from an error into another error and then you’re worried about making the third one and it just happens.

“We couldn’t shake it and couldn’t get ourselves back into the game when we compiled those errors and Cas kept capitalising every time they got down our end.”

After a relatively clean bill of health early in the campaign, injuries are beginning to bite and seven first team regulars were unavailable last week.

They are all likely to be missing again on Sunday, but Martin insisted Leeds’ casualty list is not an excuse.

“We were winning [last week’s] game. We were 10 points in front, but we couldn't close the game out,” he reflected.

“I just think we need to get back to training and have a good look at ourselves. I believe we are one of the best teams in this competition, still. But when we turn up half in and half out like we were [last week], that’s the result we are going to keep getting.

“We have had some good wins and that makes it more frustrating. We put in good performances against the best teams in the comp’ and we know we can go toe to toe with them and win games.

“Then we play Cas and they are doing everything they can to get a win at the moment and they were hungrier and that’s why they ended up winning.”

Rhinos are in a similar situation this week, away to a team who have yet to win in 2023 and are on a 16-match losing run stretching back to the end last season.

“We are at their home and we are going in off a tough loss,” Martin said. “We are going to want to put it right, but they are going to be hungry. They will see an opportunity so we need to sort ourselves out.”

Martin has switched between second-row and centre this year and admitted, while he is happy to do that, enforced positional changes can have a bearing on the way the team plays.

“I have been around the game for a long time,” he stressed. “For me, it is more the connections around the players in the whole squad and building those combinations.

“When you’re changing every week it is pretty much a fresh start. It does make the little things pretty difficult when you are in the heat of the game and you don’t have time to be clear on calls sometimes, but that’s not an excuse.”