Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur hails 'pretty professional' performance in big 46-4 win v Catalans Dragons
Coach Brad Arthur hailed a ‘pretty professional’ performance after Leeds Rhinos hammered Catalans Dragons 46-4 at AMT Headingley.
It was the Betfred Super League leaders’ fourth successive win and took their points scored in the past two games to 102. Leeds led 16-0 at half-time and ran in eight tries, giving their for and against a healthy boost ahead of next week’s huge home derby with Wakefield Trinity.
Arthur said: “I liked the way we built the game, the way we went about it was pretty professional. We were very good physically and we were right on top of our effort areas.
“We didn’t chase the scoreboard; we got a lot of work into them and we were happy to come in at half-time 16-0. We probably could have been a bit more in front, but I liked the fact no one was concerned about that.
“We had dominated possession and field position and we knew at some stage we’d get the rewards and we did. Hopefully they get a bit of belief out of playing like that.”
After conceding 22 points at Huddersfield Giants in their previous game, Rhinos put a lot of emphasis on defence ahead of the Catalans clash. Arthur admired their “grit and want and desire”, though he admitted it was disappointing to leak a try late on.
“We didn’t get beat on concentration like we have been the last couple of weeks,” he reflected of the visitors’ lone touchdown. “It was just a technical thing we can fix up. What I want to focus on is Keenan’s [Palasia] chase back.
“A big front-rower, he chased back and kept them in the corner and that two points [from the missed conversion] might help with our for and against further down the track.
“Keenan did another one in the first half where he chased back on a kick and he did the exact same thing last week. They are the bits that really please me.”