Leeds Rhinos' Kallum Watkins talks away form, big test in France and why Super League leaders must improve
Table-topping Leeds Rhinos are ready for a “different challenge” at Toulouse Olympique this week.
Rhinos are on the back of a precious 24-16 home win against St Helens, but were beaten 20-6 on their only previous visit to Toulouse, four years ago and haven’t scored in their last three games in France, all against Catalans Dragons. Their away form this year has been shaky and they have lost three of their six Betfred Super League fixtures on the road - at Leigh Leopards, Hull FC and Wigan Warriors - as well as a Challenge Cup tie against Wakefield Trinity.
Toulouse are third from bottom in the table, but picked up their fourth win of the campaign last Saturday with an emphatic 36-16 result at Huddersfield Giants. The temperature is forecast to be 27 degrees when the game kicks off at 6pm local time on Friday and veteran forward Kallum Watkins knows Leeds are in for a tough evening, despite the sides’ contrasting league positions.
Watkins stressed: “Brad [Arthur, Rhinos’ coach] touched on it straight after [last week’s] game, that it’s a different challenge and we need to be better in our away games, especially the last one against Wigan. We need to improve on that and make sure we are fully prepared for it because it is going to be a tough game over there.
“It always is, I have been there a couple of times and it has always been tough. It doesn’t matter how they are playing, they are always in the game. We’re looking forward to the trip and hopefully we can go there, get a good result and come back with the points.”
The defeat of Saints ensured Rhinos will travel in high spirits. “It was massive,” Watkins reflected of the first versus third clash. “It probably wasn’t our best performance in terms of both sides of the ball - attack and our D [defence] at times.
“There’s a little bit of discipline we need to work on, but sometimes that happens. It’s about finding a way to win and I think we did that really well, we showed a lot of grit and determination to get the job done.”
Rhinos had lost their previous eight home meetings with Saints and Watkins reckons they can take confidence from the way they hit back after trailing 16-8 at half-time. He added: “We have got a really good group, we hold each other accountable and we’ve got a really good coach who will hold us accountable as well.
“We need that at certain times and I thought when it was needed, we did that. That’s a big plus for us, but the good thing is there’s plenty of work to do and plenty of things to improve on.
“It is just about continuing to work on those things and making sure we are consistently playing well and winning games. There’s going to be times when we are not playing well in certain moments, but we showed we are finding ways to win games when things aren’t going the way we want them to. That’s great, but we know we need to improve if we want to be successful this year.”