Jetlag no excuse after Las Vegas as Leeds Rhinos boss vows 'we've got to play well' v Castleford Tigers
Leeds Rhinos owe their fans a good performance against Castleford Tigers on Sunday, coach Brad Arthur says.
Rhinos are on the back of a 58-6 thumping of world champions Hull KR in Las Vegas last Saturday and Arthur stressed it’s important they put on a similar performance in front of their home support. Leeds’ players and staff left Vegas the day after the game, arriving back in England the following morning, but Arthur won’t accept jetlag and the long return journey as an excuse for playing poorly this week.
“We will be fine,” the coach said. “That’s a choice, you can sit around and feel sorry for yourself, but we did a great job while we were away and we can back that up. We had a lot of fans and sponsors that went over to watch us, but not everyone can afford or was able to do that.
“The rest of our fans and sponsors stayed behind and sat up at midnight watching us because they are true supporters. For those guys - and the ones who went over - we have got to back that performance up this Sunday.
“We are at home, I’d like to think they should be hanging out of the rafters this week with excitement and we have got to play well. That doesn’t mean we are chasing a 58-6 scoreline, that’s not what it’s about - it’s about the attitude towards how we want to play. We owe that to ourselves and our fans.”
The result against Hull KR made the rest of the competition sit up and take notice, but Arthur stressed that is in the past now. “We did our review over there and said what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” he stated.
“We have moved on now and we are ready for what’s next. In terms of the players, we let them enjoy the occasion; they were a bit dusty on Sunday morning, as you’d expect and it was a long 24 hour period of travel. We got back, had a couple of days off and came in [on Thursday] to get some familiarity and routine before a big day [on Friday], full of enthusiasm.”
Tigers are also coming off a win, having hammered Huddersfield Giants 34-8 last weekend. Their team boss, Ryan Carr, had a spell on Rhinos’ coaching staff in 2019 and worked as Arthur’s assistant at Parramatta Eels.
“They have definitely improved on last year,” Arthur said of Sunday’s visitors. “It seems to me they have got a lot more resilience and fight in defence. I have worked with [Carr] closely before and he’s very diligent, he is a good coach. He will be pushing a lot of effort areas with them so that’s what I am expecting. He loves the game and puts a lot of time into his players.”