While one of them remains ‘heartbroken’ by the current standard of the team, others saw clear signs of improvement during Brad Arthur’s first game as head coach. All agree the side were let down by familiar failings, but there was praise for one player who has been heavily criticised this year.
GAVIN MILLER
In my Jury piece after our opening game of the season I said without a dominant pack our progression won’t be as quick as we would like. Looking back, I think I was being polite.
My exact words to my rugby league brother, JG, on Saturday were: “We aren’t going to do anything with this rubbish set of forwards,” and essentially this is where the problems lay.
I was going to write that our forwards are completely incapable of laying any kind of platform, so our superb backs just cannot get into the game. Although this is accurate, I recently came across a remark from Jamie Jones-Buchanan stating that our full-back “just needs to learn the game of rugby league.” How in the world? Our starting full-back, who plays every week for the Leeds Rhinos, is still learning the position! We became this team when?
Our 29-year-old full-back is still learning the game, and every week we field a forward line that is unable of competing with any other pack in the league. It pains me that the playing standard has fallen to such an extent.
DAVID MUHL
That was a vast improvement and a game we could and should have won, if we had cut out the usual unforced errors. At least twice we threw the ball into touch and as for Brodie Croft’s brain burst at the end, what can you say? There is an argument this was against the rules of the game and should be penalised. Check it and you’ll see I’m right.
We have to defend 40-20 kicks better, but it was good to see James Donaldson back and putting his usual hard stint in. He seemed to tighten up the middle and with 10 minutes to go we looked good for our two-point lead.
Though I felt Matt Frawley had one of his best games for Leeds, there were some strong performances all around the field, particularly his excellent kicking. Rhyse Martin scored a deft first try and had a solid defensive performance. Our defense appeared to be much more steely and resilient. The kind of passive defense we’ve been using recently is not something I’ve ever like.
Credit to Hull KR who brought a good support and helped generate a good atmosphere. We’ve got Huddersfield Giants away on Thursday and they will be on fire after their win over Salford, but hopefully we can have more improvement and come back with a win.
BECKY OXLEY
I replaced my usual spot in the East Stand by sitting in a caravan near Blackpool watching Sky Sports on a six-inch screen. I was excited to see what Brad Arthur was going to bring to the club and how we were going to play.
We started on fire and, attacking-wise throughout the game, I thought we were so much better. We were showing more in defence too, but I think fatigue got to us in the last quarter which led to more mistakes.
There was certainly a difference to the way in which we played the whole match. Matt Frawley was one of the standout players for me. He has had a lot of criticism over the season and we haven’t seen his best, but he did some great attacking kicks and played some good positional rugby.
I think with nine games of the regular season left we have got time to continue the improvement and still challenge for the top-six. Six of those games are against teams above us so it is going to make for an interesting end of the season. Brad Arthur has made a difference in a week so it will be interesting to see what else he can do over the coming weeks. I think the difference could be the fact we have only three games of the nine at home. We are going to have to pull together and play some good rugby, but we can do this. We just need to keep the faith.
TOM GOLDSWORTHY
New coach, but the same issues still persist for Leeds and it was another disappointing loss, this time to Hull KR. However, there was definitely an improvement in our performance and there looks to be something to build on as we make a late push for the play-offs.
The first half was some of the best rugby we have played all season. The intensity and effort was there, especially in defence and it was clear to see Brad Arthur has had some influence in his brief time in charge of the squad. We arguably should have scored more points with the chances presented, but I’m hoping this will come as Arthur spends more time with the squad and implements his style of play.
What cost us again, though, is simple errors throughout the game. It is always going to be hard to compete in games when we are constantly giving up possession through terrible passes or just dropping the ball. We are our own worst enemy, we let Hull KR steal that win from us.
I can see the potential with Lachie Miller, but he’s not progressing as we would have liked in the role and we don’t have time to be entertaining a player that feels like a bit of an experiment, given his lack of experience in professional rugby league. It was a rare bad day at the office for Brodie Croft as well, his clear lack of concentration at a vital point in the game just sums up Leeds Rhinos in 2024.
Every game now is a must-win if we are to see success this season and it starts at Huddersfield on Thursday. They are going through a bit of an injury crisis, but managed to turn over a decent Salford team so it will be an interesting battle. However, if we can replicate that first half from Saturday and put in a 80-minute performance, I think we will have enough to secure the two points.
IAIN SHARP
For the opening 40 minutes of the Brad Arthur era, last Saturday against Hull KR, things looked to have turned a corner and it seemed like there was some cohesion at last.
Unfortunately the latest Crowdstrike motivational half-time download failed to work and Leeds reverted to Version RohanSmith 2.0 in the second half with the return of the same old problems: ineffective short kick-offs, an invisible 12 foot high winger, the usual suspects stood around with their hands on their hips and 13 goalpost impersonators behind the try line the minute we went behind.
I have a sneaking regard for Hull KR who are now where we should be. They have a couple of decent players, propped up by the rest of the team that puts in the effort to ensure the total exceeds the sum of the parts.
The game was also spoiled by a video referee decision that did the sport no favours, a process that lasted so long, ITV commissioned it for a second series. Whilst on this occasion, the decision went against Leeds, there has to be a degree of balance between checking to see if the decision was correct and flogging the proverbial dead horse with multiple views of the same incident from exactly the same angle on the off-chance you’ll reach a different conclusion.
Finally, there was a vital and important lesson for the present generation of South Standers. Given the current frailties of the team, that make gripping a bar of soap seem easier than holding a lead, don’t start assuming we’re assured of winning 10 minutes out. This side is more than capable of imploding, as Leeds duly did again. Is anyone getting the feeling this might fizzle out into being a long, hard, frustrating and ultimately fruitless season?
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