Leeds Rhinos star issues 'stupid penalties' warning after Hull FC loss, tips big response v Warrington Wolves
Cutting out “stupid penalties” is key to Leeds Rhinos getting back on a winning track this weekend, number nine Jarrod O’Connor says.
Sunday’s visit of in-form Warrington Wolves was always going to be a big game, but O’Connor reckons Rhinos’ 24-16 defeat at Hull FC a week earlier has added more fuel to the fire. He has no doubt Leeds will be up for the contest, but insists they need to be smarter with their discipline and make fewer errors than last time out.
“It’s probably easier to get everyone up for it,” he said of how last week’s result and performance will affect players’ mindset for the clash with Warrington. “I think everyone was up for it [last Sunday], it was just the errors and mistakes that cost us and the stupid penalties. We will have to get hold of that and make sure we don’t do the same this week.”
Rhinos’ form has dipped since they crushed Hull KR 58-6 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas four weeks ago, with a scrappy win against Castleford Tigers followed by losses to Wakefield Trinity - in the Betfred Challenge Cup - and Hull. Coach Brad Arthur described the loss at Hull as a “reality check” and Connor echoed those comments.
He said: “I can’t speak for how everyone else feels, but maybe we were getting a bit too far ahead of ourselves because we were flying. We beat Hull KR, who won the World Club Challenge, but it is just another test and something else for us to come back from and I am sure we’ll do it and build some momentum.
“It’s not our willingness to play or our attitude as a team, which would be the most worrying thing. There’s a lot of easy fixes, those stupid errors and penalties we are giving away. It is easily fixable and we’ll have to do that when we come up against Warrington.”
Three of the nine penalties Leeds conceded against Hull were for dissent. O’Connor stressed: “That’s something we need to control. It’s people’s passion and wanting to win; we have got to be careful not to take that away, but be a bit smarter with it.”
Rhinos go into round six sitting fourth in the table with three wins to their name. O’Connor added: “It is a pretty similar team to the one we had last year and I don’t think we have got anything to prove this year. It’s just about building those wins and unfortunately these past two weeks we’ve not been able to do it.”
On a personal note, the number nine has taken a different role in recent weeks, playing off the bench and sometimes joining the action at loose-forward, as Danny Levi has been the starting hooker. “It has been all right,” he said of his own start to the campaign.
“Obviously I still want to start every week. I got more minutes at nine [last week] which I was happy with, but I am still pushing for that starting spot and I’ll just keep working.”