Leeds Rhinos face extra training as coach Brad Arthur targets improved defence
Leeds Rhinos are facing extra training sessions over the next few weeks.
Rhinos this season scrapped the traditional captain’s run - a light workout on the eve of a match - with players instead having that day off. But with the team now in a succession of Friday night fixtures, coach Brad Arthur revealed his table-topping side have a new schedule.
The captain’s run is back on the agenda and speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Tuesday) ahead of this week’s home game against Catalans Dragons, Arthur explained: “We have got a run of five Friday night games in a row and seven-day turnarounds. We thought it was an opportunity to get an extra training session in, not so much for training-load, but more touch points with the players.
“On those seven-day turnarounds it’s a good opportunity to spend more time with them. You’ve got to challenge the boys to change things up a bit and make sure our reaction is good and how we respond.
“We did it last week and they responded really well and we’ll run with it for the next block of five games. Then when we get back to a six-day turnaround or five days, or eight or more, it will look different again, but with a seven-day turnaround it is just a way to get an extra session into them.”
The emphasis is on defence this week following last Friday’s 56-22 win at Huddersfield Giants. Arthur was upset at the number of points Leeds conceded and stated: “We have got a big defensive day today. We have got to enjoy the wins, we did play well and overall defensively we were good, there were just some concentration lapses we weren’t happy with and we need to be better than that.
“We didn’t get beat on effort or physicality, just some concentration lapses and some system things we got wrong. We did some work on that yesterday and we are going to do a heap of work on it today.”
The coach insisted that doesn’t mean Leeds will be neglecting their attack. They have scored more points (262) and tries (45) than any of their rivals in Betfred Super League this year, but Arthur stressed: “You have got to keep doing it [at training] because as soon as you get comfortable or think you are on top of something it can bite you on the backside.”
He said: “Last year we spent 65 per cent of our sessions based on defence and 35 per cent on attack. We had to build one part of our game last year, which was around that toughness in our defence. This year we have leaned towards doing a bit more with our attack. Now we’ve just got to get the balance right.
“I am very happy for the boys to back themselves and play some expansive footy. We only made four or five errors last week, our completion rate was close to 90 per cent with the style of footy we played, but when we do make errors we have got to be able to respond better and back it up with our defence.”