Some 4/10s in Peter Smith's Leeds Rhinos player ratings from woeful 16-8 loss to Catalans Dragons

The poor result, after five successive wins, means Rhinos might need to get something from next Friday’s final game of the regular season at Wigan Warriors to secure a home play-off. It certainly changes the picture with Leeds now hoping Leigh Leopards defeat St Helens tomorrow (Friday).

That would lift Leigh above them into third place, but ensure they can’t be caught by Saints. If Saints win, Rhinos will stay third, but the teams in fourth and fifth could both overhaul them on the final weekend, which would hand Brad Arthur’s men an away tie in the play-offs.

Catalans have had a miserable season, but fielded a strong squad and did a good job of shutting down below-par Rhinos who - without the injured Jake Connor - couldn’t get their attack together. It was two tries each, but neither Leeds touchdown was converted and the visitors goaled both theirs and added a couple of penalties.

Leeds chased the game in the second half after going 10-0 down, but it was too frantic and some errors let the visitors off the hook. With no Connor, the other big guns - Lachie Miller and Brodie Croft - needed to fire, but their powder was damp.

Catalans became the first team in five games to score a first half try against Rhinos when Ugo Tison went past James McDonnell from acting-half after 14 minutes in the visitors’ third set near Leeds’ line following a Theo Fages 40-20 and then unfortunate knock-ons from Morgan Gannon and Chris Hankinson.

The only other score of the half came with two minutes left. First, Hankinson was penalised for ball stealing - Leeds thought it was as one-man tackle, but didn’t challenge - and then Lisone was judged, harshly, by referee Jack Smith to have gone high on Fages and Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet took the two.

Leeds seemed to get frustrated with the officials at times, but Smith has refereed them more this year than any other official so they knew what to expect. The hosts had only one clear opportunity when Jack Sinfield’s pass was too high for Hankinson near Catalans’ line. A Miller kick return might have produced something, but Jarrod O’Connor dropped the offload.

Rhinos did challenge when Catalans were awarded another penalty in front of the posts 12 minutes into the second half, but it was unsuccessful and the full-back’s third goal made it 10-0. That came moments after Croft kicked on the first when the tackle count had been wiped near the French side’s line, which rather summed up Leeds’ night.

In the third quarter Rhinos received four successive penalties and a six-again deep in Catalans’ territory. Eventually even Jack Smith’s patience ran out and Romain Navarrete was sin-binned. The penalty count finished a hefty nine-three in Leeds’ favour.

Leeds scored against 12 with a superb put-down by Ryan Hall from Croft’s kick, but Catalans grabbed a freak second try with seven minutes left when Luke Keary’s drop goal attempt hit a post and Julian Bousquet touched down from the rebound. Video ref Liam Rush overturned the on-field call.

Croft scored a lovely solo try after that, but Miller missed with what should have been an easy kick to cut the gap to a converted try and Catalans held on to their eighth-point advantage in front of a bumper - but bitterly disappointed - crowd of 15,157.

Leeds Rhinos: Miller, Hall, Newman, Simpson, Hankinson, Croft, Sinfield, Oledzki, O’Connor, Jenkins, Gannon, McDonnell, Palasia. Subs Lisone, Bentley, Watkins, Holroyd.

Catalans Dragons: Aispurp-Buchet, Yaha, Smith, Cotric, Makinson, Keary, Fages, Dezaria, Tison, Navarrete, Sims, Sironen, Garcia. Subs Zenon, Bousquet, Satae, Seguier.

Referee: Jack Smith (Wigan). Attendance: 15,157.