'Rushes of blood': Leeds Rhinos coach Rohan Smith reflects on loss to Salford Red Devils

Leeds created several good chances, but managed to cross Salford’s line only twice and were on the wrong end of a 10-3 penalty count.

Rhinos remain eighth in the table, but face a tough month with back-to-back Betfred Super League and Challenge Cup games against Wigan followed by the visit of champions St Helens.

Smith faces a headache ahead of Friday’s trip to Wigan with both his scrum-halves ruled out, but will have fresh bodies to come back in the pack.

Zane Tetevano and Justin Sangare did not feature against Salford, which Smith said was because of “squad rotation”.

Reflecting on his side’s sixth defeat in 11 Betfred Super League fixtures this year, Smith felt the performance was a mixed bag.

He said: “We had a few rushes of blood, I guess, defensively that hurt us, but overall I thought we defended very well.

“We played like a team in attack, but we just didn’t quite maintain possession enough to fully go on with it.

“We played against a good team who keep turning up and found a way to scramble. It was a decent game of footy, overall.”

Smith felt “a bit of personal discipline with the ball” was the root cause of the errors which dogged Rhinos performance.

“The possession ones, where we lost the ball in contact in the first half, hurt us,” he admitted. “We didn’t apply enough to Salford, who made their opportunities count and executed well.”

He added: “I liked how we went about our team attack, I thought we found a good blend of moving the ball and carrying it direct.

“It was more in the contact we didn’t finish off the play, that troubled us the most. We clearly need to tidy that up.

“Defensively I thought we handled a lot of what they threw at us, but the penalties in front of the posts, giving those away cost us - it’s hard to understand some of it.”

Of his side’s mistakes, Smith said: “I’ve always thought it’s how, where and on what tackle you make the error that is more critical than the volume of errors. I think plays lost is a more relevant statistic than errors.”

Two of the three tries Rhinos conceded came when they were down to 12 men, with Blake Austin in the sin-bin.

The stand-off was shown a yellow card by referee Jack Smith for obstructing opposite number Brodie Croft as the Salford man followed his own kick near Rhinos’ line.

The Leeds boss said: “It was very costly. Live, it appeared to me like it was [the correct decision to award] a sin-bin.”

Leeds received just three penalties, all in the first half, to Salford’s 10. Asked in his post-match press conference about the speed of the ruck, Smith did not criticise the referee and said he will “see what happens at the coaches’ meeting this week”.

Smith noted: “You can’t help but notice the crowd, but I was asking about the speed of the ruck in pre-season games and the reports back on the 10 metres, the markers and the ruck were that everything was tending in the right direction. That has been confirmed in the correspondence I have had.”

Rhinos were without half-back Aidan Sezer who suffered a quad muscle injury in the defeat at Leigh Leopards two weeks earlier, so teenager Jack Sinfield came in for his first senior appearance since last July.

The 18-year-old’s sixth game at first team level ended a few minutes early when he went off for a head injury assessment,

“He clashed heads, he has got a bit of a banged up face, but he’s feeling fine in the dressing room,” Smith said. “It was a decent hit to the face.”

The coach confirmed Sinfield’s head knock will rule him out of Rhinos’ next match. Sezer is expected to be sidelined for at least a month, but Smith insisted: “We have got some versatility and options in our roster. It is always about who is playing, rather than who isn’t.”