Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur talks 'strong position', no need for wake-up call and Bradford Bulls danger

Rhinos, who play host to Bradford Bulls tomorrow (Sunday), began Betfred Super League round 20 holding a two-point advantage over chasers Wigan Warriors and Wakefield Trinity and, with games against both their nearest rivals still to come, the race for the league leaders’ shield is set to go to the wire.

Despite their lead being halved following last weekend’s 36-32 defeat at Castleford Tigers, Leeds still have the upper hand and Arthur insisted: “There’s 13 other teams wishing they were in our position.

“We don’t have to rely on anything else, except each other. We have put ourselves in a strong position; the only thing we have got to rely on is our reliability as a team and as players, to do their jobs. Everything is in our control, it’s right where we want it and need it and it is up to us.”

Arthur is looking for a response to last week’s setback and feels tomorrow’s derby will prove Rhinos’ mettle. “I am excited about it,” he added. “Sometimes when you don’t quite get it right on the day it provides an exciting opportunity to see what we’re made of moving forward. I am excited to get the chance and the game can’t come around quick enough. We will be ready to go.”

Despite the result, the team boss felt his side “did a lot of good things” against Tigers, in a game where they led 16-0, 20-4 and 30-16 and scored seven tries. He accepted: “We just had some periods where we relaxed or took our foot off the pedal too early, tried to cruise and invited them into the contest.

“We haven’t lost any confidence in how we play, we’ve just learned a couple of good lessons. It was a costly lesson in terms of the two points, but we get a good opportunity this week to respond, back at home.”

He stressed: “People are saying ‘it’s a wake-up call, you needed it’. We didn’t need a wake-up call - we just got a few things wrong and we learned a couple of valuable lessons out of it.

“Unfortunately it cost us the two points, but it wasn’t a game we were never in; we were in front twice and we could have won it at the back end. There were three stoppages in the first half and one in the second - I don’t know if we needed drinks breaks when it was only 22 degrees on the day, but we have got to learn to handle that a lot better.”

Rhinos have already beaten Bulls twice this year, including a 50-16 result at Magic Weekend three weeks ago. “We have heavily focused on ourselves and a few things we need to work on and improve,” Arthur stated.

“It’s mainly a mentality thing, we had good mentality last time we played them - we started really well, were patient and built pressure, but we did have a period of seven or eight minutes where we, again, relaxed. We have to make sure we work hard and start hard, but then we have got to chase that full mentality for an 80-minute performance.

“I know Bradford have got a few injuries, but we aren’t expecting anything less than for them to be hard and physical. One thing they can be proud of is they have pretty much done that against adversity every game. That’s what we are expecting.”