Brad Arthur van Leeds Rhinos complains ’embarrassing’ attitude of loss against St. Helens

Leeds head coach Brad Arthur was very critical of the attitude of his team and noticed their first half performance “embarrassing” if she for a loss of 18-4 for St. Helens.

In the game, Rhinos went on a five-game extraction run in the Super League, including the victory over Saints on Magic Weekend, but were limited to only one attempt because the hosts produced big moments at both ends of the field.

In the meantime, Leeds kept a whole series of handling errors, the chances, but going fast, because they could not play consistently.

Asked if he had read the riot act during the break, Arthur said: “It was not a ‘spray’ because I didn’t know if that would make much difference.

“We just talked about how it was probably our worst 40 minutes, it was embarrassing, and we had 40 minutes to just chase a performance, not the scoreboard, and unfortunately we continued to chase the scoreboard.

“I think it comes back to one thing and that is the attitude. I think they had a better attitude to try to get the simple things right and to build a game. We probably wanted to get a quick victory and get it and do it.

“We may think that we are going better than we are. What I tried to drill in the boys, all the team fulfills after you. The only thing that matters now is how we respond to it.”

There was a remarkable number of handling errors on a sweaty night, but Arthur added the heat: “It’s a choice, you can choose whether you want to make an effect or not and we have done that clearly.”

Wilkin: Leeds approached the game with arrogance

Sky Sports Rugby League’s Jon Wilkin was also not impressed by the approach of Leeds Rhinos of the competition and believes that they show up with an “arrogance” after winning their last five games.

“I thought it was a arrogant and reckless performance of Leeds,” he said.

“I thought they were approaching the game with arrogance from minimal, minimal position and the possession of the saints too easy.

“Brad Arthur will mess around on that. It’s all attitude that. You have to give every fixture in this competition the credit it deserves, and I just don’t think leeds pop up in the mental space to play a tight game.”

However, it was a different story for winning head coach Paul Wellens, who believes that his side has found the “blueprint” to achieve the big wins like these that they have missed.

“This was a very important game for us,” said head coach Wellings. “I thought the way the team approached was the first class. We came behind a short turnaround in Salford, and that was a physical game.

“We have almost done nothing on the training field, but the players are in a position to go outside and thus perform against a really good side. To keep them one night like this, I think that was a huge defensive effort.

“The challenge for us is now to build on it and build some consistency. That has been one of our problems lately. That is a blueprint for us playing in large games.”

“(Harry Robertson’s Tackle) was the game of the night for me,” Wellens added. “I was confident that we would come tonight that we would get a good strong performance and when I saw that, that reassured me more than we are here to play.”

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