'Worst of the season': Leeds Rhinos Jury reflect on defeat at Hull KR, call for more leadership v Giants

Rhinos slumped to a 20-12 defeat at Hull KR as their inconsistent start to Betfred Super League continued.

Our panel had some sympathy for full-back Luke Hooley following his difficult debut and were pleased to see Mikolaj Oledzki back on the field after injury, but agree it will take a much improved performance to beat Huddersfield Giants this weekend.

IAIN SHARP

In conditions that the Scots have a marvellous word for, dreich, Leeds served up another horror show in east Hull last Friday night, proving that following the Lord Mayor’s Show does indeed come the bin wagon.

With the team already forced into playing Rhyse Martin at centre, they lost David Fusitu’a in the first-half and clearly struggled on the back of it.

I’m not going to bag players, but anyone who was there, anyone watching it on the telly or anyone reading the media reports will have a good idea who I am talking about. Those who questioned their recruitment at the time seem to be increasingly justified in their judgement.

Another thing that needs a rethink are the short restarts, which Leeds screwed up on several

occasions. Maybe we are better suited to hoofing it downfield and getting everyone to chase it.

Thankfully Easter is now just a single game and the team have the opportunity to spend some long hours on the training ground trying to get it right before the visit of Huddersfield to Headingley on Sunday evening.

BECKY OXLEY

So a trip to Craven Park and Hull KR on a very wet Friday night was Leeds’ mission last week. Starting the game on equal points in the table, I thought it would be a good head-to-head clash.

A few changes from last week, Luke Hooley making his Rhinos and Super League debut and the weather may have had something to do with the outcome.

Jordan Abdull and his kicking game also had us under pressure. We showed glimpses of class, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Defensively we were good though, so there are positives to take away from the game.

There is a lot for us to work on and I’m sure Rohan Smith will have us working hard this week ready for Easter Sunday against the Giants.

We have a few days to work on things. The team isn’t settled yet as we have had many changes since the start of the season.

We are in a better position than last year at this stage and I’m sure we will come together and have a run of wins. We have beaten Saints and Catalans so we aren’t doing that bad. Let’s get behind the lads on Sunday and see if we can beat the Giants.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

On a wet and windy night over at Hull KR, we slumped to another embarrassing away defeat and at this point I’m not surprised we followed up our most complete performance of the season with arguably our worst.

The first half was dire, there’s no sugar coating it. The Robins used the weather conditions to their advantage and we didn’t have an answer.

I will wait until Luke Hooley has had a few games in a Leeds shirt before judging him as it was a tough game to make his debut in, but some of our other pre-season signings looked like they have never played a game of rugby before.

Derrell Olpherts never looked like catching a ball all game and Hull KR punished us through him at every opportunity.

Scoring twice in the second half made it more bearable but at that point, the game was gone.

The only positive to come from the game in my opinion is that Mikolaj Oledzki got some much-needed minutes after coming back from a nasty shoulder injury.

The inconsistencies in our game are what is most frustrating about Leeds at the moment. I feel like a broken record, but again our big name players just aren’t stepping up when needed.

Beating Catalans and St Helens doesn’t mean much when the next game rolls round and the players aren’t giving the same effort as they did the week before.

There is a real lack of leadership in that squad and we lack someone who will galvanise the team when the going gets tough.

Letting three senior players go in the off-season looks to be a huge mistake by the club, especially when two of them were here during our golden era in Zak Hardaker and Liam Sutcliffe.

Looking ahead to our Easter Sunday fixture against Huddersfield, I genuinely cannot call it. We have been too unpredictable and it could go either way. Hopefully in front of our own fans we’ll get the win but the Giants are a good side and we’ll have to be at our best to get a result.

DAVID MUHL

Trips to Craven Park are always cold and windy, even in the middle of August, but the weather conditions on Friday night were at the worst I’ve seen for some years.

When you have the best kicker in Super League, Jordan Abdull, in the opposition team it is always going to be a difficult night for the full-back and wingers and so it turned out.

I think it would be unfair to judge Luke Hooley and Derrell Olpherts on this game alone. Rather than worrying about how we played in the first-half against a horrendous wind, what concerned me most was the way we opened the second-half conceding an awful try after just 20 seconds.

The most frustrating thing about Leeds at the moment is the way we can play superbly against the likes of Catalans and St Helens, but go to pieces against Castleford and Hull KR.

We need to cut out the simple errors and costly penalties. I thought yet again Jarrod O’Connor was the best Leeds player, he tried hard and was always probing and was good in defence.

Days like that are always disappointing; most supporters, myself included, want to see a winning team, but in Rohan Smith we have a coach who is building for the future and bringing young players on so we all need a little bit of patience.

Having said that, with games against Leigh, Huddersfield and Hull coming up we need to improve if we have any play-off aspirations this year.

Huddersfield are our next opponents at HQ on Easter Sunday, let’s hope for a bumper crowd to help bring the boys home against a team that have been difficult for us to beat at times recently.

It will be good to get there early to watch the women get their season going against last year's Grand Finalists York.

JOSH JACKSON

Horrific conditions matched our horrific performance at Hull KR. We’ve had three away defeats this season and all three have been extremely bad performances.

Last Friday I was confident we were going to get the job done convincingly. Well, how wrong was I? We were back to one-man rugby and no idea in attack, followed up by costly errors and fear of catching high kicks.

Jordan Abdull had a field day peppering Derrell Olpherts and Luke Hooley with high kicks. The only positive of the game for me was to see Mik Oledzki back. Seven games in and we have still not put in an 80-minute performance, which I find worrying.

The players need to take responsibility and step up. The foundations in this squad are there and we aren’t firing.

Sunday will be a really tough game against Huddersfield who haven’t been firing all cylinders yet but have looked strong when I’ve watched them.

SAM BROCKSOM

Consistently inconsistent is the best way to describe the Rhinos at the minute. We seem to win one game and think we are world beaters.

Yes, the conditions massively affected us last week, but we need to be more adaptable for when we play in wet conditions. Hull KR were better suited and played wet weather

rugby.

We lack leadership on the field, not many players are talking, especially when we’re losing. That should be where the more experienced players in the side are getting round the younger lads and supporting them.

We need to appoint a single captain and for me that should be Cameron Smith. One player I do want to highlight, however, is James McDonnell. Since he made his debut, he has not

looked out of place and is one of the most underrated players in the squad. He made 56 tackles on Friday and scored a try.

On to the Giants on Easter Sunday. Our home form has been quite good and I do expect us to win, but if we repeat that performance then we have no chance.