Leeds Rhinos' Mikolaj Oledzki talks what's going wrong, who’s responsible and how to fix it

Oledzki admitted the performance in last Friday’s 40-10 defeat at St Helens, particularly late on, was not acceptable for a club of Rhinos’ stature. And he stressed players and staff are anxious to give their fans something to celebrate in Saturday’s derby at home to Castleford Tigers, who will go into the game in better form

Since losing 26-6 to Rhinos at the Jungle in March Castleford have taken seven points from their six matches, three more than their near neighbours. A seventh league defeat would pile more pressure on Rhinos coach Rohan Smith and his players, but Leeds’ next four games are all against teams below them in the table and Oledzki reckons they have an opportunity to get their season on track, if they play to their potential.

“It is a big game,” Rhinos’ 2021 and 2022 player of the year said. “But they all are when you’re going like we are at the moment. We are a bit on and off; for 40, 50, 60 minutes every week we are in the game, then it just doesn’t happen for us and we kind of lose our composure.

“This week, Cas at home, it will be a big turnout and a great atmosphere - hopefully - and it’ll be a massive game for us. It will be a game we need to use as a stepping stone in the right direction and really fix the things that went wrong [last Friday] in certain areas.

“We have to correct them and show the fans who support us every week what we can do. For them, we need to put up a good showing and really put a good performance under our belt.”

Rhinos begin round 13 - effectively the half way stage of the regular campaign - seventh in Betfred Super League, two points behind sixth-placed Salford Red Devils, A top-six finish is still well within reach and Oledzki insisted Rhinos can still force their way into the play-off picture.

“Of course,” he said. “Our changing room is full of great players, great individuals and great characters - lads I love playing with. We have done enough work together to know we can turn this around quickly.

“To start off, to give ourselves a chance, we have to keep the ball. We get a good roll on and get teams to the point where they are about to open up a bit, then we kind of take our foot off the gas with a mistake here and a mistake there.

“It is frustrating, I think a big part of our game where we let ourselves down is once we get a few [mistakes] under our belt we get a bit eager to play. But there’s no one in the team who’s not willing to rip in. We are going to face it head on as a team and a squad - us, the staff, everyone at the club - and we are going to put things right.”

Fans’ anger has been aimed at Smith, but Oledzki reckons it is the players who have to put things right. “It was a very tough night,” he said of the drubbing at TW Stadium. “Our performance, especially at the back end of the game, wasn’t good enough.

“We are Leeds Rhinos and such a performance should never happen, but it did and there’s no one to point a finger at but ourselves as players. We have got to take responsibility, there’s no one else to blame.

“We are going to have to have a good look at ourselves and why it happened and really get it fixed up. The last 15 minutes or so was hard to watch.”

Oledzki insisted lack of effort isn’t a factor. He added: “We turn up to games and we are really ripping in for each other, but that last 20 minutes, I think we just tried to fix things individually.

“It was frustration taking its toll on us. When you try to fix things individually, not as a unit, unfortunately that’s when things fall apart. For us, at the back end of the game, it wasn’t a nice showing.”