Leeds Rhinos fans fear for Wigan Warriors game after St Helens loss, call for star to be dropped

That’s the question being asked by the YEP’s fans jury this week after Leeds suffered yet another early exit from the Betfred Challenge Cup, at St Helens. It was a second successive defeat to rivals who aren’t playing particularly well and left Rhinos needing to find a big improvement before the next two tough games, at home against Wigan Warriors and Saturday and away to Warrington Wolves six days later.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

Once again, Leeds Rhinos were their own worst enemy as we limped to defeat against an average St Helens side, meaning our Challenge Cup dreams for this year are over. It felt like a carbon copy of our performance against Catalans.

We struggled to build pressure on Saints and then when we finally had some momentum, we'd make a really basic error and let them off the hook time after time. The one that stands out for me is Sam Lisone offloading it straight to the opposition on the second tackle. It epitomises his performances this season as he has been poor, even by his standards. Other players have been dropped for less and I would be surprised if we saw Lisone on the team sheet for the foreseeable future.

For the most part, our defence was solid. However, a poor 10 minutes has cost us the game, which should not be happening at a club wanting to challenge for trophies. A problem that has plagued us for years is we cannot play for 80 minutes and Friday was another prime example. You would not see Wigan or Hull KR lose a tight contest like that because of 10 minutes when they switched off.

The most frustrating part for me is that Saints were not that good, they did not have to do anything special to get the win. I believe we missed Cam Smith's leadership, who would have helped us keep composure in vital periods of the game, something that was needed against Castleford and Catalans as well.

Looking ahead to Saturday's game against Wigan, they must be licking their lips at the prospect of playing us. The Warriors will be looking to bounce back after a shock defeat to Hull FC and what better team to do it against than a team who can't keep hold of the ball for more than two tackles? I still think this Leeds team has the potential to push on to greater things, I just cannot see us kick-starting our season against this Wigan side.

IAIN SHARP

Meh. That word - which has popped up in the internet era to express exasperation, general lack of inspiration and the like - seems to be an apt narrative to sum up Leeds at the moment. The pre- and early-season optimistic hope is rapidly evaporating like water in a pan left on the stove too long.

Meh is also the general malaise towards the Challenge Cup in its current format and yet another game against St Helens, clearly thought up by the folks that thought playing Bradford five times a season was a good idea. Even against a Saints side not a patch on the one it was a few years ago, after the debacle in France the previous week most Loiners fans probably decided to huddle over their tablet and watch the game via The Sportman’s coverage on YouTube, thus saving the cash or the bother of the M62 on a Friday night.

Leeds actually played better than most of us expected in the first half, only to let it unravel rapidly with a post half-time meltdown. The first tries in two hours of rugby gave faint hope of a potential fightback, but certainly with emphasis on the faint.

With that defeat, one major prize has gone, leaving contributors to this particular section grasping for colourful or illustrative alternatives to talking about a ‘long, hard season’, ‘concentrating on the league’ or the fact we are ‘still not good enough’. The only hope is that pre-season friendly Wigan turn up on Saturday.

DAVID MUHL

My wife is a wonderful woman and knows the Rhinos come first in everything, so when booking holidays she always consults the fixture list. Unfortunately, she expected us to get knocked out in the first round of the Challenge Cup and booked a holiday to Morocco for my birthday, which also happened to be the date of the Saints fixture.

She booked a lovely hotel, but failed to check Tripadvisor where she would have found out that the wifi was not only appalling, but almost nonexistent. Hence, I was unable to watch the match and had to rely on the occasional texts from my son to keep me updated.

That has given me the opportunity to reflect on various things; firstly is the Challenge Cup still a viable competition? It seems to have lost its excitement, taken over as an event by Magic and the Grand Final. I would be upset to see it go, my first taste of watching Leeds and the game that got me hooked was the Watersplash final against Wakefield, but does it still fit in today’s calendar?

Secondly, the current state of our team. There is no doubt we've had a few barren years and our start to the season hasn't been as good as I hoped, but I can see quite a few positives. Brad Arthur is definitely an excellent coach and it's good to see his honesty in post-match press conferences. For so long, we've had coaches trying to make out everything is rosy, not so with BA; he says it as it is and has a plan to deal with it.

At times we have played some good rugby, but not always been able to get over the finish line. We are pushing the passes which is leading to errors. As BA says, we need to learn to be boring, play safe, have patience and things will come good. We have a good squad of players who need to have the pressure taken off them and be allowed to play.

We all know expectations at Leeds are extremely high. I have confidence that things will come good; just like the players we fans need to have patience. Now, time to hit the beach!

BECKY OXLEY

Well, what can we say about that? Another year not getting into a Challenge Cup final and all because of 10 minutes in the second half when we didn’t play, or even show up on the field.

For me, the first half was the best we have played this season so far. We were fast and showing good attack and defence. There was nothing between the teams and I was looking forward to a second half the same. That wasn’t to be - we looked like a totally different team and three tries in 10 minutes for Saints changed the game and allowed us to be knocked out before the quarter-finals yet again.

It was disappointing and disheartening to watch after the first half and I wondered what the change was about. I’d love sometimes to be in the dressing room as a fly on the wall to see what is said and how that then correlates on to the playing field.

Maybe a positive from the game is it gives us more time to think about Super League and performing at a better standard to get into a play-off place this season. We have Wigan at home this weekend and, after their defeat in the Cup, I think it could be quite an even playing field and a close game. As always let’s keep the faith.