Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur insists it’s still too early to be thinking about the league leaders’ shield.

Rhinos went four points clear at the top of Betfred Super League after a 50-16 Magic Weekend win against Bradford Bulls this afternoon (Sunday). It was Leeds’ sixth straight victory and, with 17 of 27 rounds played, they are in their best situation since the 2015 treble-winning season.

But speaking in his post-match press conference at Everton FC’s Hill Dickinson Stadium, Arthur insisted his side are still taking things week by week. “Not yet,” he said when asked if the first place silverware was on his mind.

Leeds Rhinos' Brodie Croft celebrates scoring against Bradford Bulls. Sponsors Betfred donated £180 to the MND Association for every try celebration at Magic Weekend. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.

“We just need to keep being reliable. We weren’t for 80 minutes today, but we are ultra-reliable at the moment around you look around the sheds and you just know what you are going to get from the start of the game, which is great.”

Rhinos led 30-4 at half-time and 34-4 soon afterwards, but Bulls got back-to-back tries to give themselves hope of a remarkable fightback. Leeds pulled away again in the final quarter and assessing their performance, Arthur said: “I thought we started well, built the game nicely and probably didn’t finish it off the way we wanted to.”

But he insisted: “I don’t want to be too critical. We have got high standards and expectations, but I thought our middles were outstanding. They were really good; they were strong, they were powerful - that’s how we wanted to play.

“We probably left a few points out there, there were a couple of tries we weren’t happy about, but it has been a really good month for us. We’ve had to play some high-intensity games and we’ve been tested, and we’ve come out the other side of it.”