Leeds Rhinos suffer double injury blow but boss makes no excuses after loss at Wakefield Trinity

Mason Lino landed a drop goal with seven seconds left on the clock to secure Trinity’s second win over Leeds in three meetings this year. Rhinos had led by six points with 13 minutes remaining, but couldn’t hold on and also picked up two injuries during the game.

They were missing five forwards, including Cameron Smith with a back problem and Andy Ackers who was unavailable because of illness and Arthur was proud of aspects of Leeds’ performance, but admitted they made too many errors in the second half. He commented: “I said to the boys after the game I was extremely proud of their effort and physicality - their fight and want and desire was all there.

“We defended our tryline, it seemed all night, but when you give a quality team that many chances, at some stage they’ll come away with the points. We made too many cheap errors in the second half.

“In the first half, we did really well to come in at eight-all. We hadn’t been in the game, we had no field position, but in the second half there was too much cheap possession we handed them down at their tryline. They didn’t have to work hard enough for it. We worked hard to get our field position down their end and when we got it we scored. We have got to learn from that.

“We only had one good-ball start in the second half and three in the first. In the first half we didn’t do a lot wrong, but in the second there were probably four or five crucial errors.”

Leeds lost scrum-half Jake Connor and winger Alfie Edgell in the second half. Connor failed a head injury assessment following a collision with teammate James Bentley soon after the break and Arthur said: “It doesn’t help, but it’s not a reason or excuse for why we couldn’t get the job done in the second half. Jake can’t control us turning the ball over out of red zone with a couple of silly pushed passes or lapses of concentration. I don’t think it mattered a great deal.”

With no game next weekend, Connor will be available when Rhinos return to action at Leigh Leopards on Thursday, August 7, but they are likely to be without Edgell. He went off in the final quarter with a foot injury and Arthur said: “He will need to have a scan, it got progressively worse to the stage where he couldn’t run. They don’t know if it’s ligaments or a fracture.”

One positive for Leeds was 18-year-old forward Presley Cassell’s performance off the bench in his second senior game, six days after his debut. “He was good,” Arthur said. “We took a bit of a chance, he went on as second change and did really well. Before I knew it, I looked up and it was 20 minutes into the second half. He didn’t look tired or fatigued and I probably didn’t need to take him off, but it was a good opportunity to get some fresh legs out there.”