YEP Jury: Struggling Leeds Rhinos need to buck the trend at home to London Broncos

Our fans’ panel look back at Leeds Rhinos’ 34-10 defeat at Hull FC and ahead to Friday’s home clash with London Broncos.
Brett Ferres.Brett Ferres.
Brett Ferres.

ANDREW SUTCLIFFE

If the many loyal Rhinos fans still held on to the belief that the 2019 season would be the start of a renaissance at the club, last Friday night at a wet, windswept, cold Kcom Stadium in Hull put that idea into fantasy land.

Despite a promising opening 10 minutes, all the old failings came back to haunt us, failure to tackle, lack of discipline, a non-existent kicking game and a lack of communication on the field. All contributed to a disappointing performance.

Dave Furner.Dave Furner.
Dave Furner.
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It is possibly unfair to compare the current squad with those of previous years, but one thing that this squad seems to lack is passion.

We have, for years now, had teams with a high percentage of home-grown talent who have come through the system and had belief in the club.

Owing to circumstances, we now have many journeymen players who, although often talented, appear to treat the honour of playing for the Rhinos as ‘just another job’!

There is no quick fix, there is no magic wand to wave; much hard work is required throughout the club.

London Broncos coach Danny Ward.London Broncos coach Danny Ward.
London Broncos coach Danny Ward.

LUKE CROSSFIELD

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We were fantastic for 10 minutes then it was all one-way traffic and some very poor defence gave Hull a very well-deserved half-time score.

The second half didn’t look good either; there seemed to be quite a lack of effort to support each other and work to create anything against Hull’s defence.

What is more frustrating is that once again the performance in the last 20 minutes of the first half was just non existent.

It is not time to panic, however we need to be careful or else a relegation battle could be on the horizon.

A signing would be nice to see, especially in the pack.

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Friday will not be an easy game at all against London Broncos.

Danny Ward has done an unbelievable job with them and they will come here thinking they can get two points.

They have not been the pushovers that everyone thought they would be.

I would love to see a good performance and two points before our trip to Perpignan next week.

OLIVER HAWKHEAD

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I read an article by the NRL’s Andrew Voss last week that said that Leeds Rhinos’ next two Super League games were must wins.

When I read it I definitely agreed, so when I saw the result I was very worried.

The problems were not fixed from Wakefield because we are still undisciplined and poor defensively.

Being beaten by Warrington in the first game of the season looks decent compared to this week’s result against a Hull side that aren’t brilliant.

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Looking back at the first few weeks of the season, it would seem as though we don’t have a prayer of making the playoffs, even though we have only played half the teams in the competition. It seems to be as though we are not improving but getting worse every week.

This is even more troubling going into this week against London.

This is a team that has gained wins against Wigan and Wakefield – teams that we could not beat ourselves.

I think this game is indeed a must win if we want the slightest chance of mounting a play-off challenge.

THOMAS LAWRENCE

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Last week I said that Leeds needed to be clinical in attack, fix up the broken defence and minimise the risk of Marc Sneyd’s kicking game – and for 15 minutes, they did.

From then on, more poor game-management decisions and the restored usual standard of defending provided Hull FC with a comfortable evening.

After racing into a 10-0 lead with two tries down the right-hand side, I cannot understand why, on fourth-and-fifth-tackle plays, we chose to attack down the left or grubber kick for forwards to chase in the middle when it was never on; we had Hull where we wanted them down the right every time.

Soon after, poor discipline and defending allowed Hull to score five unanswered tries in 24 minutes with Leeds hardly touching the ball – extremely disappointing.

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On Friday we welcome a London team enjoying life in Super League after a couple of nice scalps to Headingley for the first time in five years, now under the guidance of former Rhino Danny Ward.

Early days in the season, but this really is a must-win game for Dave Furner and Leeds.

KATIE BURROWS

I said after round one that we should see how things were looking 10 games in, but now, after six, it feels like we’ve taken one step forward and five steps backwards.

It’s difficult to remain positive following some truly dreadful performances, especially defensively. I don’t know what has changed since the Salford game, but it feels like we are a long way from where we were.

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It sounds obvious – and I feel like I’m repeating myself – but if we can start doing the basics right (defence, discipline, cutting out silly errors) then I think we’d see a marked improvement.

We’ve also been lacking a leader, so I’d like to see Brett Ferres given another chance as captain and, hopefully, he can make a difference. I’m sure most fans (myself included) assumed the London fixture would be an easy two points but, having seen them put in strong performances against Wakefield and Wigan, I imagine they’ll fancy their chances – and I don’t blame them!

If we continue to play the way we have been doing, I genuinely can’t see where our next win will come from.

TIM NUTTALL

Just like last week, we scored first, 10 points in fact within the opening 10 minutes.

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What followed showed the standards are nowhere near what they need to be if we are to try and achieve anything this season.

Thirty unanswered points in little over 20 minutes’ play says it all.

The nature of some of the tries we gave away was awful.

And the manner of defeat has left some fans suggesting Dave Furner hasn’t got it in him to turn us around.

Time will tell on that, but it must be remembered that it isn’t Furner missing tackles or giving cheap penalties away.

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The players have to take responsibility and I am sure they do. It was a positive that Harry Newman bagged his first try for the first team, and got an assist for Tom Briscoe’s.

Up next is a visit of London Broncos, on paper a good chance to pick up two much-needed points.

Recent games against them always seem to generate a lot of points; we must focus on ourselves, stronger in defence and more clinical on our last-tackle plays.