Leeds Rhinos: Coach Lois Forsell expects improvement against Saints

After three games, Rhinos are second in the table, ahead of Saints on points difference, but both teams were beaten at leaders York City Knights in their most recent match.

That puts more pressure on the Sky-televised Grand Final and Challenge Cup rematch, being staged as a curtain-raiser to the men’s showdown between the same clubs.

“Sometimes you turn up and things just aren’t right and you don’t click the button in enough time to turn it around,” Forsell stated.

“That’s rugby and the challenge now for us as coaches is to turn up with a squad that are good to go, happy to perform for 80 minutes and will dig in deep.”

Captain Courtney Winfield-Hill was a late withdrawal from the side which lost to York and Forsell reflected: “A lot of things happened that day that affected us.

“We’ve spoken about it and said we can’t let that affect us. We’ve had some open and honest conversations around that, we’ve put the York game to bed and we’ll look past that now.”

But she added: “We’ve certainly learned a lot from it. There were some areas where we weren’t smart enough rugby-wise.

“I think it was just one of those days when you’re off the boil and you’re not going to get a result.

“We’ve reviewed it and had individual conversations. Individuals probably weren’t pulling their weight on that day.

“We’ve worked hard since then, we’ve reviewed and reflected and we are ready to go.”