YEP Jury: Leeds Rhinos’ defence continues to be nothing short of embarrassing

ANDREW SUTCLIFFE

A difficult week for me personally was compounded by what can only be described as an embarrassment of a performance against Hull Kingston Rovers; we managed to make an average team of journeymen and ex-Rhinos look like world beaters.

Poor defending and no direction in attack was horrendous to watch and I think we need to have a good look in the mirror. If only they all had an ounce of the desire Konrad Hurrell brings to the team.

We are a third of the way through the season now so there are no excuses for bad performances. Getting beaten by the better team is fine but we appear to beat ourselves week after week.

I know players don’t play badly on purpose and will be hurting as much as the fans are but only they can fix whatever the issue is.

A break from the league this week and a potential banana skin against Workington in the Challenge Cup.

Usually I’d suggest resting a few but the way most are playing, they need to try and gain some confidence.

LUKE CROSSFIELD

Once again that simply wasn’t good enough. Our defence is really bad and the kicking game was devoid of any creativity.

Only Konrad Hurrell could leave Craven Park with any credit, he was superb. An opportunity to get off the bottom of the table lost.

Enough of the men’s team for now because our women’s team made a superb start to the season. They had lots of success last year and hopefully that will continue this season. Also another impressive win for our under-19s.

The other teams that represent us are doing really well and hopefully that gets transferred over to the men’s team.

I would like to see some of our academy players get a chance to show what they can do in the Cup on Friday night.

Workington will be smarting from their shock defeat last Saturday to London Skolars. Leon Pryce will get them fired up and seeing Brad Singleton face his brother Perry will be an interesting contest.

Hopefully we will produce a professional performance and we get into the next round of the competition.

THOMAS LAWRENCE

As another few weeks of 2019 pass for Leeds, it’s a further case of one step forward, two back in terms of our performances.

After good performances at Salford and Saints in February we came crashing down against Wakefield and now, after positive performances against Catalans and Castleford, we have once again imploded because of a lack of ability to defend, this time at the hands of Hull KR.

What’s more frustrating is that there are some individuals performing at the required level week-in week-out, who are continually let down by a large number of the matchday 17.

We cannot afford to keep having halves of rugby where we concede 30 or more points and, if we don’t start learning lessons soon, we really are in trouble. This week, and a break from Super League to host Leon Pryce’s Workington in the Challenge Cup – a game and result we’re hoping will be a formality.

Leeds must take this as an opportunity to be ruthless in both defence and attack; we need some confidence and Friday evening is a good chance to gain some – and hopefully see what some of our talented youngsters can do.

OLIVER HAWKHEAD

Another sloppy defensive show by the Rhinos means that we are still rooted to the bottom of the Super League table and are drawing ever closer to the prospect of relegation.

To concede 31 points in a half is diabolical and it’s clear that something has to change soon. I think head coach Dave Furner needs someone who’s defensive minded as our attack is good.

However, the defence is as stable as a chair with two legs.

We desperately need a kicker who can organise and lead a team as, at the moment, we are missing this crucial piece of the jigsaw in our team.

Callum McLelland could be the answer for the future. That said, I don’t think one of the youngest in the squad should have the responsibility to lead the team, especially with limited first-grade experience.

Therefore, I would like to stake the claim for Leeds to look into York City Knights’ Connor Robinson.

He has an impeccable kicking game and his management is superb, not to mention his 92 per cent conversion rate.

He fits all our gaps apart from our defence which can only be solved by the whole team.

KATIE BURROWS

Now I’ve had chance to digest last week’s performance, I’m not feeling quite so negative.

Losses for Huddersfield Giants, London Broncos and Wigan Warriors mean it’s still very close at the bottom and a couple of wins will see us back to safety. That said, the Good Friday fixture against Huddersfield will be a pivotal game for us.

I’d say that game, and the three that follow (against Wakefield, Hull KR and Salford), are absolute must-wins if we are to avoid being in any sort of relegation scrap.

This week we take a break from the League and begin our Challenge Cup campaign against Workington Town.

If I were Dave Furner, I’d name a full-strength team, and use Friday’s game as an opportunity to gain some much-needed confidence.

We missed Richie Myler last week, so I’ll be glad to see him back in the side, and I’m also interested to see who will be chosen to play at ‘six’.

In more positive news, congratulations to Leeds Rhinos women who got their season off to a cracking start with a 58-4 win over Wakefield Ladies.

TIM NUTTALL

It has taken me four days to consider writing this week’s piece, mainly because I wasn’t entirely sure how to condense my feelings towards Leeds’ performance into the requested number of words!

The standard of the defending, in the first half in particular, still leaves me feeling hugely frustrated, perhaps even as far as to say embarrassed by it.

As a supporter, all you want is for your team to be hard to score against, to see some pride in the try line.

Koni [Konrad Hurrell] didn’t deserve to be on the losing side – he was awesome again, four tries and over 200 metres!

Scarily, there was a point in the second half when you actually considered we could win the game, until they got two more late tries.

Looking ahead to Friday, I can see Dave Furner giving some of the young lads a chance, Callum McLelland in particular.

If he takes this opportunity, then I can see him getting a game over Easter.

If our attitude isn’t right, Workington will fancy causing an upset. The response to the horror show on Thursday is massively important for us.