Leeds Rhinos coach Richard Agar is focusing on the next game against Toronto Wolfpack - not the top of the table

Visitors Toronto Wolfpack are bottom of the table, without a win in five games this year and were crushed 32-0 at St Helens last Saturday, the day after Rhinos beat Warrington Wolves 36-0.

That was Leeds’ third straight win, their best run in the top flight since 2017, but Agar insists Rhinos aren’t getting ahead of themselves.

“We have played four games and we are not going to go around beating our chests after one win,” he pledged.

“The way we operate, we try and keep a fair balance to what we are doing and concentrate on what’s important.

“That’s building the foundations of a performance again this week, based on hard work and effort and people doing their jobs and being accountable.

“It would be ridiculous to think we are doing anything other than going week by week – and that was the same after round one.”

Since being hammered 30-4 by Hull in their opening game Rhinos have conceded only four tries and kept a clean sheet in their last three halves.

“That has been a good feature of our last three performances,” Agar said.

But he stressed: “Last week was the first time I felt we were really in the groove defensively.

“Last year I was really confident in our D (defence) and really confident by the back end of the year we could defend back-to-back sets.

“We had a couple of stats where we became one of the top teams for defending repeat sets.

“You don’t want to be doing that all the time, but I thought that showed where we got to defensively and our resilience.

“We got to a really good place. I just haven’t felt over the first three weeks we were quite there, our tackle misses were up and our ruck control was down, but it was an exceptionally high standard last week.”

Agar added: “We have set a standard for ourselves and, importantly, we know what it feels like to defend for full halves and full games.

“We were pleased with the 36, but really pleased with the defensive effort in a lot of areas.

“When we got broken we stayed composed, when we got asked questions on offload we got our system right.

“We defended well on our edges and when we had to cover up and scramble we did. There were a lot of really positive signs, both individually and collectively – in the mindset and technically how we delivered it as well.”

Agar reckons Toronto, coached by former Leeds boss Brian McDermott, are tougher than their results suggest.

“When you look a bit deeper at performances, I think they are getting better,” he said.

“I think they are competitive, they are competing really hard and their effort in defence has been magnificent.

“Some scorelines haven’t done their efforts in games justice. When you look through the team, they’ve got Sonny Bill Williams, Gaz O’Brien, Matty Russell, Ricky Leutele – they are all people who can produce points and good plays.

“I think their wins will come. They have probably been dealt a tougher set of circumstances than any other club, getting together late and when they came in the market, playing every fixture away from home.

“I think they have been dealt a tough hand. They are saying it doesn’t matter if they lose the first few as long as they are showing signs of improvement – and they are certainly showing them.

“It will be a real test.”