'Sign of a good team': Leeds Rhinos' Liam Sutcliffe talks winning run, positive head space and squad depth

The regular season will be over in less than two weeks’ time, but Rhinos - like all top-flight clubs - have three games to play before then.

They are at home to Huddersfield Giants on Wednesday, visit Catalans Dragons next Monday and play host to Castleford Tigers five days later to complete a schedule of four games in 16 days which began with a 24-18 defeat of Warrington Wolves last Friday.

Players are used to that sort of fixture congestion at Easter, early in the season, but it is a different matter now, with seven months of gruelling rugby behind them.

Sutcliffe, though, insisted: “To be honest, I’ve not thought too much about it.”

He said: “It hasn’t been spoken about, but it is what it is.

“The games are coming thick and fast, but we’ll just get on with it.

“That’s our attitude, it’s just one of those things - everybody’s got to go through it.

“We are no different, we’ll go game by game and see how we go.

“There’s not going to be a lot of training, it’s going to be more about recovery, but everyone’s fit and match fit at this stage of the season so it’s about recovering right and getting ready to go again.”

If they avoid any charges from last week’s match, Rhinos will go into Wednesday’s huge clash with nobody missing through suspension, for the first time this season.

David Fusitu’a completed a two-match ban last week and is set to return in place of Liam Tindall who suffered a thumb injury against Warrington.

Long-term casualties Kruise Leeming, Tom Briscoe and James Donaldson are expected back before round 27 and Leeds could have a strong squad available for the play-offs, if they secure a top-six finish.

“There were a few boys back [last Friday],” Sutcliffe noted.

“We should have a few more back this week and it’s really helping the squad, coming into the business end of the season.

“It will be tough for Rohan [Smith, Rhinos coach] to pick a team.

“It will be good to have everyone fighting for positions and he’ll enjoy it, I am sure.”

The current five-game hot streak is Leeds’ best since 2020 when they won four successive matches before Super League was shut down by the pandemic, then their first fixture after it.

Sutcliffe said: “It feels really good, something we’ve not been used to, but we are on a bit of a roll at the moment and hopefully we can keep it going.

“We are confident, but we aren’t getting too carried away with ourselves.

“We are just taking it week by week.

“We’ll look at [last Friday’s] game and then our full concentration goes on to Wednesday.”

Rhinos still have work to do to secure a place in the play-offs.

They have climbed above Castleford into fifth, but all their remaining games are against top-six teams.

“We know we are in there at the moment, but we are going game on game,” Sutcliffe insisted.

“If we keep performing and keep grinding out wins the table will take care of itself.”

Rhinos’ record under Smith is nine wins from 13 games, including victories in seven of their last eight.

Leeds have proved they can win by fighting back after going behind, building on a big early lead and - as against Warrington - holding off an opposition rally.

Sutcliffe noted: “It shows how far we have come as a team, we are finding different ways to win.

“Friday’s second half was scrappy and they had a lot more ball, but we found a way to win which is the sign of a good team and probably shows where we are at the moment.”

Asked if Rhinos would have won that game three or four months ago, Sutcliffe admitted: “Probably not.

“You don’t know, but there may have been a time when they scored a couple and our heads kind of dropped.

“We were still confident and even when they were coming back, there was never a time when I thought we’d lose.

“It is a good place to be in, that kind of head space.

“They got a couple of tries back, but when we were behind the sticks everyone was calm and confident we could get the win.

“There was no worry, no panic or anything like that, which is good to be part of.”