Singleton in rallying call to end double-headers

UNITED action is needed to prevent player burn-out, Leeds Rhinos front-row forward Brad Singleton believes.
Brad SingletonBrad Singleton
Brad Singleton

Singleton was one of 12 Leeds men to play three games in eight days culminating in last Friday’s 22-14 win over Leigh Centurions.

He also started in the 28-20 defeat at Widnes Vikings a week ago and the previous Friday’s 40-0 home victory against Warrington Wolves.

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Super League players went through a similarly punishing schedule less than two months ago, at Easter and Singleton feels playing so many games in such a short space of time is tough on players and unfair to the paying fans.

He described Leeds’s win three days ago as a “very flat game” and said: “I think in terms of the standard of rugby it was one of the worst I have played in, because of the conditions and three games in a week.

“I think the players need to stand together and all the clubs need to stand together and we need to call the double-headers off.

“Maybe we could keep Easter, the traditional one, but [last Friday] was a different standard of rugby.

“It’s not what the fans came to see.”

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The result maintained Rhinos’ record of not having suffered successive defeats this season.

Every loss so far has been followed by a win and Singleton feels that is an indication of how far they have progressed.

Twelve months ago Leeds were on a run of seven successive defeats and he said: “We are a different bunch to last year – we react well.

“I think there’s plenty of heart in there and at the minute we have got an ethos of working together.

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“The error isn’t the missed tackle – the error is not cleaning it up.

“We’ve got that out there, but three times Leigh scored on the last play so that’s an issue.

“We can’t switch off, but apart from that I think we are in a good place.

“We are sat near the top and we need to take some momentum into Wakefield on Saturday. We are confident, we should rest up with a bigger turnaround and it should be a different game.”