Upset fans blast 'pathetic and disgraceful' Leeds Rhinos after Magic Weekend defeat to Castleford Tigers

It was Leeds’ second loss of the season to their near neighbours and the YEP Jury are, to put it mildly, miffed.

Rhinos led by 10 points deep in the game, but Tigers hit back to snatch only their third win of the season - and our panel have dubbed Leeds’ performance “pathetic”, “clueless” and “disgraceful”.

With a trip to Belle Vue up next for Rhinos, on Sunday, the Jury fear Wakefield Trinity are about to pick up their first victory of 2023.

DAVID MUHL

We don’t have the greatest record at Magic Weekend over recent years. We’ve had some poor performances at times, but Saturday’s game was one of the worst.

Castleford had won only two games prior to this, one against us earlier in the season and Leeds did everything they could to make sure they got their third.

The only table we are going to finish top of this year is the number of unforced errors made. Quite honestly, there are players in this team that are simply not of a high enough quality to wear the Leeds Rhinos jersey.

Players like Cam Smith and Blake Austin must be pulling their hair out to see all their hard work go to waste by players who can’t even do the basics like passing, playing or catching a ball, things most players learn at under-eight level.

These recent performances simply aren’t good enough. Yes, we have injuries but that’s the point of having a squad of players. No team should surrender a 10-point lead so tamely.

We seem unable to manage a game properly. It’s true that teams, especially local teams, raise their game against Leeds; this has always been the case, but we should be good enough to deal with this. Our next four games are against Wakefield, Huddersfield, Warrington and Salford. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got nothing from these. I can even see Wakefield getting their first win of the season on Sunday, which would be embarrassing.

I’ll try to finish with a few positives, although it is proving difficult. Jarrod O’Connor continued with his high workrate and Austin had some lovely touches to create two tries, proving if he has runners he can provide them with quality ball. The trouble is, he doesn’t have them enough. James Bentley returned strongly and is one of the few I would offer a contract extension to.

BECKY OXLEY

I must admit I’m a bit lost for words this week. We started off well and then we were either poor or mediocre.

We struggled defensively and had no idea in attack. Errors were coming all over the place with dropped balls and we just seemed for the whole to have no clue.

We are just over half way through the season and I must admit my optimism is waning.

I know we have a few players out injured and we lost Tom Holroyd in the warm up, but we need to have consistency, which we are lacking.

We have played well the last couple of weeks and this week we looked, for the most part, like we didn’t know what we were doing.

Something needs to change and we need to work together as a team to work out what is going so wrong. We have had a lot of losses which could have so easily gone the other way, but the points being dropped now are precious.

Next week is Wakefield in their own backyard. They are yet to win this season and there will be plenty of Rhinos fans thinking this will soon be changing. I must admit I’m going to sit on the fence this week. Like Cas, Wakey can give us a good local derby and it’s anyone’s on the day.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

Having followed Leeds for the past 10 years, it is pretty fair to say that Castleford Tigers have become something of a personal bogey team. I have seen us produce only a handful of wins against our local rivals and our Magic Weekend clash ended with a familiar disappointing feeling as James Bentley got dragged into touch and the result was sealed.

We were second-best for most of the game in a pathetic display, to put it politely. Both teams came into this game in pretty poor form, but only the Tigers looked like they wanted to change that.

I am aware it was never going to be an easy game, but if we are going to make the play-offs, these are the ones we need to turn up in, not just the big clashes against Wigan and Saints.

Losing Tom Holroyd in the warm up was disappointing as he has been one of our top players this season, but injuries are not an excuse for the level of performance produced.

The amount of errors made in our own half is appalling, some Leeds players might as well have pulled on a Castleford shirt, they played that poorly.

The only reason Castleford won is that they showed up and we did not. If we had turned up and just done the basics, it would have been a landslide victory.

The only player who comes out with any sort of praise is Blake Austin. He was a constant threat, setting up two tries and making over 100 metres. At this point in the season, he is making a clear statement about getting a contract extension, but the same cannot be said for others within the team.

Wakefield have lost all 14 games this season and conceded over 400 points, but I am really not confident we will get the win this weekend. Confidence will be low within the team and missing key players to injury, I do not think I will be the only Rhinos fan who can see Trinity nicking a result against us.

JOSH JACKSON

Another Magic Weekend is over and it was possibly the last one, according to rumours. I’m a fan of Magic Weekend and think IMG need to keep it or tweak it slightly, or we will lose a really exciting weekend of rugby league. It’s great for the sport and rewarding for all the fans to have a great weekend out.

On to our game and another absolutely disgraceful performance. We were really soft in defence and lacked fight and ideas all over the pitch.

Derrell Olpherts is proving to be the worst signing of the season. A lot of fans are really losing their patience with this team and coach. I can accept we had a number of players missing, but there were definitely enough there to beat Cas, especially when we were 10 points up in the second half.

Positives: Nene Macdonald and Rhyse Martin, I thought, were excellent going forward. It’s Wakefield up next and a real pressured game which we can’t lose or I think you can safely say our season is over.

IAIN SHARP

Once upon a time, Leeds used to be nailed on for a win at Magic Weekend, but more recently the contrived fixture has been less of a happy hunting ground, as Leeds threw the game away again last Saturday.

I am not a fan of the format and would happily see it removed from the fixture list, not least for the unimaginative opposition choices and kick-off times that do nothing for fans just wanting to go for the day.

Leeds were shocking again, with the finger - as at least a contributing factor - aimed at a certain player who is rapidly losing his favour with the Leeds faithful. The quality of such a signing was questioned by many at the time.

Supporters are also questioning coach Rohan Smith’s position. Perhaps his greatest ‘mistake’ was getting to last season’s Grand Final. For this, some fickle fans thought the good times were back when in reality major surgery was still required.

It could be argued that we are really only a year into that three-year project of turning the team around. Defeat at winless Wakefield on Sunday, while not illegal, would certainly be unwise.

SAM BROCKSOM

Well, that’s Magic Weekend done for another year. Despite our on-field performances, the concept shouldn’t be scrapped and I don’t know why the powers that be are considering it. This year had an increased attendance to last year despite train strikes and cost of living.

Looking at the performance, well it was shocking to say the least. I can accept losing if the effort is there, but when you have half the squad seeming to not care, that is when it is a problem.

We know we can do it because we’ve seen it against Saints. It is now one win in six. Too many times this season we have lost games that should have been won.

Leeds playing doesn’t excite me anymore. From bizarre team selection to the way we play, there is no structure. This passive defence tactic we seem to have employed is clearly not working and we lack aggression.

I genuinely don’t know if we will beat Wakefield next week. That game should be two easy points but, with how varied our efforts have been, I don’t know which Leeds side will turn up.