Leeds Rhinos 26 Wakefield Trinity 0: reaction from coaches Rohan Smith and Mark Applegarth
Boss Rohan Smith was delighted with the contributions from Harry Newman and James Bentley on their return after long-term injury in Leeds Rhinos’ 26-0 win over Wakefield Trinity.
Newman scored Leeds’ second try and Smith said: “It’s nice and fitting, he has been really patient and trained very hard.
“James Bentley looked very fit and sharp as well, which is credit to the physios and strength and conditioning staff who have got them ready.”
A concern for Leeds was an ankle injury suffered by Ash Handley in the first-half. Smith said: “They are just assessing it, it doesn’t seem like a really serious one, but it might cost him a few weeks.”
The first-half ended scoreless, but Rhinos ran in five tries after the break to complete a second successive win.
“We defended well in the first half and made some corrections to our attack at half-time,” Smith said.
“We were a bit more direct and more patient. We asserted ourselves straight after half-time and put on a few nice tries to finish some opportunities.”
It was the third successive game Trinity have failed to score and their coach Mark Applegarth “thought we had them at half-time”.
He said: “In the first 10 minutes of the second half we gave four penalties away in that time and Leeds took advantage.
“We’ve got to learn to hang in there and stay patient. I can’t fault anyone for effort, but there was some dumb rugby.We need to get smarter and be more composed.”
He added: “We’ve sorted our defence out as a whole - we just ran out of steam in the last 20 - but we’ve got to start scoring points.”
To add to Trinity’s woes, Lee Gaskell suffered a suspected torn pectoral muscle and Samisoni Langi failed a head injury assessment.
Applegarth said: “We are a bit busted at the moment, but we don’t want to use that as an excuse.”