Why Leeds Rhinos have 'everything to play for' as they aim to right 8-year wrong
Leeds Rhinos have “everything to play for” over the final three games of the regular season.
Rhinos confirmed their place in the Betfred Super League play-offs when they won 34-0 at Hull FC last Saturday. That is a leap forward after successive eighth-placed finishes and victory at Huddersfield Giants tomorrow (Thursday) would strengthen Leeds’ hold on third spot.
Coach Brad Arthur reckons being in the top-six is “an achievement for the work we’ve done and where we’ve come from”, but insisted: “It should now be a boost for us to what we want next.”
He stressed: “We’ve secured a finals spot and the next part of it is we need to secure a home semi-final. Once we do, it’s about what comes after that. It all starts this week; we’ve had four good consecutive performances and the challenge is to do it five times and six and seven. The really good teams do that.”
Rhinos’ final two league games are at home to Catalans Dragons a week tomorrow and away against Wigan Warriors eight days later in what could be a shootout for second place behind Hull KR. Arthur, though, pledged they aren’t looking that far ahead.
“We can’t get bored with trying to be consistent in what we do,” he said. “If we keep doing that, we will put ourselves in the frame to win games. If we can do that, we’ll be playing a home final and from there, we can set up that last game against Wigan. We don’t know what will happen in the meantime, but the important thing is we know what we have to do to play a home final and that’s all we are focused on at the moment.”
The leading pair on the final table earn a bye through the first round of the play-offs, then a home semi-final. Teams in third and fourth have a home tie in the week one eliminators. AMT Headingley hasn’t staged a play-off since 2017 and Arthur vowed: “I think we owe it to ourselves to play with the pride and energy of a team that’s semi-final bound and have their destiny in their own hands.
“We owe it to the club and our loyal members, fans, supporters and sponsors who have stuck strong with the club. They deserve a home final and that’s what we need to strive to achieve. I am not expecting any downturn in attitude or energy, because we have got everything to play for.”
Giants - beaten 48-2 at Wakefield Trinity last Saturday - are third from bottom in the table and, like Leeds, have a lengthy injury list. Rhinos won 28-6 when the teams met at Easter and Arthur recalled: “It was a while ago the last time we played them, but they had plenty of fight. They are probably going to be disappointed with how it went last weekend, but I am expecting they will come out and throw everything at us in the first 20-25 minutes and they will fight hard.”
Of Rhinos’ form, the coach reflected: “I am pleased with the way our performances are taking shape over the 80 minutes. I feel like the first half of the year was learning how not to beat ourselves and we are doing a pretty good job of that now.
“We are hard to beat and now we are learning how to win in different ways. Last week, we started a bit flat and didn’t have the same energy levels as over the last six-seven weeks, but we toughed it out, hung in there and once we got to the opposition’s end of the field we came with a try and that gave us the energy we needed. We had to face a bit of adversity and that’s what’s pleasing at the moment, our response to different things that happen in a game, because no 80 minutes looks the same.”