'We need to keep improving': Leeds Rhinos full-back Richie Myler expects tough game at Castleford Tigers

Rhinos competed back-to-back wins with a 26-0 defeat of Wakefield Trinity at Headingley last Friday, lifting them to eighth in Betfred Super League.

They will be favourites again this week, against another team who are still looking for their first victory of the campaign.

Defeats in their opening three games led to the surprise departure of Tigers coach Lee Radford and interim-boss Andy Last’s first match in charge was a 36-6 defeat at Huddersfield Giants last Friday.

But Leeds rarely face anything other than a tough battle against Castleford and Myler reckons Thursday will be no different.

“They have changed their coaching set up and you always get a reaction from that,” Leeds’ number one warned.

“It is always a big derby and we are looking forward to the challenge. We’ll go there on the back of two good performances, but not excellent performances, with lots to work on.”

The first-half against Wakefield ended scoreless, but Rhinos clicked into gear after the break, running in five tries.

Myler said: “I think we were better in the second-half, we were more direct and we played on the front foot a bit more.

“We were a bit lateral in the first-half which hampered us a bit, we didn’t really get going, but as soon as we got into the second-half, we were there - the halves took the line on and went direct, everyone plays off the back of that and it creates, space.

“It’s a platform to build off. There were some steps forward, but we’ve still got a way to go. We built on last week at Saints, that was a big high and to back that up against a decent Wakefield side, who are tough to break down, we were happy with that.”

But the full-back warned it is too early to start getting excited. He added: “We’ve only played four rounds and there’s a long, long way to go.

“Nobody will get carried away, but we made a good step forward [last week] and we just need to keep building on that.”

Rhinos’ season got off to a poor start when they were crushed 42-10 at Warrington Wolves a month ago.

They followed that with an improved performance, but another defeat, against Hull FC at Headingley before the wins over St Helens and Wakefield.

Myler insisted they didn’t panic after successive losses and won’t get carried away with back-to-back victories.

“Rohan’s really good in the sense he doesn’t ride a win too much and doesn’t ride a loss too much,” he said of Rhinos’ coach Rohan Smith.

“He keeps everybody focused on the next task and I think you could see that in our play [last Friday].

“It wasn’t going our way and that’s going to happen at times; you’re not going to hit your straps every time, but we refocused at half-time and spoke about getting back to our game plan and what we wanted to do. I thought we delivered that in the second-half and got the rewards for it.”

Myler provided the final pass for three of Rhinos five second-half tries and felt his individual performance was similar to the team effort.

He said: “The first-half was a bit of a mixed bag, but in the second-half I started to get into it and had assists with a couple of tries and played my game off the back of the team going the right way.

“I am getting there, I am happy, I am building into it; there’s lots to work on and we are going to keep working hard as a team and as individuals.”

Other than the result, Rhinos’ main positive from last week was the return after injury of centre Harry Newman and second-rower James Bentley.

Myler’s fellow Ireland international Bentley, who had been sidelined by pre-season knee damage, came on as a first-half substitute.

In his first game since suffering a hamstring problem last August, Newman joined the action with half an hour to play and scored a try with his first touch.

“Competition for places is great,” Myler said. “You can see the quality Harry has got, but we just want him to ease into it, find his feet and get some games under his belt, then we all know what kind of player he can be.

“It’s just about him getting the minutes and the conditioning into his body so he’s fit and firing for the rest of the season.”