Ruthless Brad Arthur, new cult hero, 80-minute performance needed: latest Leeds Rhinos talking points
Leeds Rhinos have yet to prove themselves against one one of the competition’s leading lights, but there have been positive signs in their four competitive games so far.
Leeds, who meet Catalans Dragons in Perpignan on Saturday, have won two of their opening three league matches and have some individual players in good form. Here’s five talking points following their 38-24 defeat of Castleford Tigers.
1: Whether he returns to Australia at the end of this season or Rhinos manage to hold on to him for a few more years, when coach Brad Arthur does go home he will leave the club in a better state than before he arrived.
Asked in his press conference after Sunday’s game how pleased he was with the win, his answer was direct: “I’m not.” The two points were welcome, but Arthur wasn’t willing to accept the way Leeds fell away in the final 17 minutes, when they conceded three tries.
That sort of ruthless mentality has been missing for a while, but it’s what Rhinos needed and a much tougher mindset is developing around the club now. The individual impact Arthur is having on players like Jake Connor and James Bentley is also impressive. He’s clearly a coach the squad want to play for - and if they don’t, they won’t last long in the side.
2: There’s a long way to go and they had a similar start to their 2024 campaign, but so far Rhinos seem to have improved in certain key areas. Seventy five per cent of stats are meaningless, but after three rounds Leeds have made the joint-fewest (along with Castleford) errors in Super League. That’s after they committed, by far, the most in 2024.
They also have the best discipline to date, with just nine penalties conceded. Only St Helens have made fewer tackles or missed tackles than Leeds and Rhinos are third-highest try scorers and have made the fourth-most metres.
Clearly, some of that is due to the strength of opposition they’ve faced and much tougher challenges are looming, but they are moving in the right direction. Consistency is the key now.
3: It is a long time since Leeds’ forwards have dominated an opposing pack the way they did against Castleford. Tigers are light in the middle of the field - which is why Arthur opted for three props at the start of the game, including Keenan Palasia playing loose-forward - but Rhinos took full advantage. Three games into his Super League career, Palasia is already on course to be their best overseas signing since Rhyse Martin. He has skill, he runs hard and can match the opposition physically, something Leeds have struggled to do in recent seasons. Cooper Jenkins also looks like being a smart acquisition, but Tom Holroyd’s likely ban is a blow, not least for him. He’s in the final year of his contract so needs a big season - particularly after only six appearances in 2024 - and had started the campaign in good form.
4: If Rhinos could pick a game to be without both first-choice half-backs - as well as their numbers one and 13 - they’d probably choose Castleford at home, on current form. That said, Morgan Gannon - who has made a very strong return from his year-long concussion layoff - and Jack Sinfield did a good job playing behind the dominant pack.
Missing Brodie Croft and Matt Frawley, full-back Jake Connor stepped up and was at the heart of Leeds’ attack. When he’s in the mood, he’s a very difficult player to defend against.
Lachie Miller is expected to be back in contention within the next two or three weeks, following his calf muscle injury and it will be fascinating to see how Arthur deals with the positive selection headache that will cause.
5: While it seems Rhinos are improving, an 80-minute performance still eludes them. They weren’t far away in the win at Salford, but clocked off for spells against both Wakefield Trinity - when it cost them the victory - and Tigers.
Rhinos haven’t conceded points in both halves of a game yet this season. Having nilled Wests Warriors in the Challenge Cup, the 14 points Wakefield scored came in one blistering spell in the second quarter, Salford scored their six inside a couple of minutes at the start of the game and Tigers were scoreless at half-time, before adding 24 points after that.
If they can cut out those lapses and defend as well as they have been for much of games in even longer spells, Leeds will fancy their chances of scoring against anyone, given the form their strike players are in.