'Concerning & embarrassing': Leeds Rhinos fans upset after Wakefield Trinity inflict latest Cup failure

The fourth round defeat at Wakefield Trinity means Rhinos still haven’t beaten a Betfred Super League team in the competition since Salford Red Devils in the final six years ago. Here’s what the YEP’s fans jury made of it.

IAIN SHARP

Look on the bright side, London in late May is vastly over-rated and you didn’t want the hassle of trying to book a cheap train or find a reasonable hotel down there that weekend, did you?

After beating Castleford the previous week, I thought Leeds had avoided the main issue the trip to Las Vegas could cause, which was looking jaded on their return. However, it was in this game that Leeds looked jet lagged against a Wakefield side who were certainly up for it,

as you would expect whenever Leeds are in town.

Leeds did start brightly, which is more than can be said for the Wakefield floodlights, but trailed off badly and tired early, as the game progressed. The game saw the ludicrous situation of Leeds playing in their fourth different shirt in a mere six games. The white heritage shirt features the city of Leeds crest and ‘established 1895’, which I presume relates to the date of the breakaway of the Northern Union. However, scholars of the club’s history know a Leeds rugby club existed well before then and indeed Hull FC, our opponents this week, were founded in 1865. Leeds St Johns, which eventually became Leeds Rhinos, were formed in 1870 so I’d be interested to know why this date isn’t reflected on that heritage shirt.

DAVID MUHL

The Challenge Cup defeat was disappointing, but not unexpected. I sort of predicted it last week. Teams always perform poorly in the second week after long-distance travel. So, it’s another year without a cup run.

We were second-best in most departments and looked tired. Our forwards have looked on top in every game this year, but on Friday were second-best. We were eight points up with five seconds to go until half-time, but predictably Jack Sinfield, who had a superb game, kicked over the advancing line to allow Wakefield to go in for a try without a hand on them. The second half is best forgotten, we were truly awful. We were tiring quickly, making errors and giving penalties away and it didn’t help when Harry Newman got himself sin-binned for a totally unnecessary offence.

There were few positives to take out of that game, though Brad Arthur says none. Ash Handley is really making the centre position his own. I was sceptical when Brad moved him there, but he scored a good try and made a fantastic pass to Maika Sivo for his first touchdown. Sivo continued his scoring run with a brace, but made several errors.

Lachie Miller had a good game and was a threat all night, probably the best Leeds player. George Brown continued his progression in the first team including one superb tackle on Tom Johnstone.

I’m sure it is a blip and we’ll be back to winning ways this week. The boys will have had another week to recover from the Las Vegas trip. Hull is never an easy away game, but it is one I look forward to.

BECKY OXLEY

After 20 minutes without the floodlights and considering it was Friday the 13th, I should have anticipated how the game would unfold. The only accurate prediction I made for it was that Maika Sivo would score two tries.

I didn’t foresee our defeat, but I believe it has brought us back down to reality. I expected that with the team we fielded we would be in contention for the next round, but fatigue and insufficient training over the past few weeks since Vegas have certainly taken their toll.

Some might argue that this outcome was inevitable, but Brad Arthur is definitely not pleased. We lacked unity as a team, resulting in numerous mistakes and minimal cohesion. Another year of not advancing past the fourth round of the Challenge Cup is disheartening, but now we can focus solely on the league.

Next, we must prepare for Hull with a longer break to rectify our issues and rebuild our team dynamics. We cannot allow this setback to weigh heavily on our minds. A journey across the M62 is always challenging, but let’s hope for two points and a strong performance from the boys.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

Once again Leeds Rhinos have stumbled out of the Challenge Cup early as we were defeated by a spirited Wakefield side on Friday night. Neither side showed much quality in an end to end contest, but Wakefield had more cutting edge in attack which ultimately won them the game.

What adds insult to injury for me is the fact we will not have a good run in the cup for a sixth year in a row. A club of Leeds' stature should be making the latter stages of the competition on a regular basis. only reaching the semi-finals and beyond three times in the past 10 years is concerning and embarrassing.

If Brad Arthur had hair, he would have pulled it out with the amount of errors Leeds made. The Rhinos were uncharacteristically ill-disciplined with the ball and looked lazy in defence, letting Wakefield score some very easy tries. There was always going to be a hangover from our trip to Vegas and while there were signs of it in our performance, we failed to do the basics right and got punished for it. The only positive for me from the game is that Maika Sivo continued his try scoring run, but it counts for nothing if we cannot see the game out.

Looking ahead to our trip to Hull FC, we will have had nine days’ rest so there will be no excuse of fatigue anymore. Hull FC have had a miserable start to the season and with the quality we should have available, I expect Leeds to be ruthless and pick up their fourth league win in a row.

KATIE MARCZYNSKI

Another year, another early exit from the Challenge Cup. It has been six years since we’ve reached the last eight of the competition and I really thought this year we’d manage it, but sadly it wasn’t to be.

It’d be unfair to Wakefield to make excuses for our performance - we were simply beaten by the better team - but a number of our key players didn’t perform to the standard we know they can and made costly errors.

Jack Sinfield was excellent for them. It always seems to be the case that our ex players come back to bite us. As for positives, it was great to see Maika Sivo bag another couple of tries, his second was nothing short of miraculous and our left edge continues to be very threatening.

There’ll be concerns about our half-back options for this week's trip to Hull FC, with George Brown limping off on Friday and Brodie Croft potentially still sidelined. The Black and Whites are struggling to find their form this year, having not won since the opening round, which probably means they're due a result. Fingers crossed for an improvement in discipline and defence this week to get us back to winning ways.