'When we sort that out we'll be flying': Leeds Rhinos' Jarrod O'Connor reveals key task v Wigan Warriors

Rhinos will travel to Wigan Warriors on Friday aiming to avoid a third successive defeat, following losses to Leigh Leopards and Salford Red Devils.

Those games followed a similar pattern with Rhinos going behind, getting themselves back into the contest just before half-trime, but letting their opponents off the hook with a string of basic mistakes.

“I felt like our attacking shape was there, it was just the unforced errors let us down,” O’Connor said of last week’s Salford setback.

“When we were forcing passes in try-scoring opportunities they were coming off, but it’s the play-the-balls and all the silly ones we need to cut out.

“The effort is definitely there, whether it’s concentration or just trying too hard, we need to fix it up because that’s the main thing that’s on our back at the moment.”

He vowed: “As soon as we sort that out, we will be flying. We have identified it and it’s a pretty simple thing to fix up. At least it’s not a lack of effort or anything like that, which would be a lot more difficult.”

The next three games will go a long way towards making or breaking Rhinos’ season. Friday is the first of back-to-back meetings with Wigan - who visit Headingley eight days later in the Betfred Challenge Cup - and Leeds then play host to St Helens on Friday, May 26.

Leeds began Super League round 12 in eighth spot on the table, two points outside the play-offs and O’Connor said: “We know the challenge we’ve got coming up.

“These next three weeks are the games you want to be involved in, they are the biggest ones and I’m sure we won’t need any more motivation for them. We need to fix up those errors, but 100 per cent I think we can win the next three games.”

Rhinos have an impressive recent record at Wigan, having won in three of their last four visits and kept the hosts scoreless twice, so O’Connor reckons they will travel in confident mood, despite the recent upsets.

“The past couple of years we have played quite well when we’ve gone over to Wigan,” he stated.

“Just the physicality of the game, we all seem to step up against them and that’s something we are going to look to do again. I am very confident we can do that.”

The Cup draw was tough, for both sides, but Rhinos have home advantage as they aim for their first victory in the competition since beating Salford Red Devils at Wembley in 2020.

“It is probably the best way to do it,” O’Connor noted. “They are the holders and up near the top of Super League this year and obviously it is a good challenge. We will see where we are at after these next few games.”

O’Connor is one of five ever-presents for Rhinos this term. Having ousted former captain Kruise Leeming as first-choice hooker, he hasn’t missed a match in 13 months and is the reigning Yorkshire Evening Post Shooting Star, an award for the club’s most impressive young player.

Of his recent form, he said: “Good, I think I’ve been pretty solid, but obviously I am going to look to keep improving every week.

“That’s something I want to do and I am sure I will. I am going to keep working hard alongside all the coaching staff and Corey [Johnson, Rhinos’ other senior hooker] and I am sure we’ll come through together.”

Johnson has made four appearances this term and is regarded by Rhinos as a star in the making.

A year older than O’Connor, at 22, he is a former England academy player and his fellow number nine knows he has to stay on his toes.

“He is getting more game time and looking good when he does,” O’Connor said of Johnson. “It is only going to do us both a world of good, having to compete with each other and fight for game time.

“It is always good to have competition and coming through the academy, Corey was always one of the best.

“He is still proving that now, he is working hard alongside a good core of young players we’ve got now. We are all working together and all working towards one goal.”