Richard Agar says his team must play better in the remaining weeks if they are to have a chance of competing for the Super League trophy.
Leeds struggled to a 28-24 win over Castleford on Monday with Oliver Holmes send off giving the Challenge Cup winners a leg up in the second half.
It was a result that kept the Rhinos’ top four hopes alive as the business end of the season approaches.
Speaking following last night’s game, Agar said: “We are excited by what is in front of us. We know it is going to be difficult with the volume and frequency of the games but we have a bunch of boys who are really looking forward to it.
“We probably feel that we got away with one tonight. We got away with a pretty poor performance.
“I thought we got comfortably in front and tried to bring them back into the game, two or three times, within the space of about ten minutes.
“But our boys are a pretty together bunch. Even in a poor performance, to find a way to come through and win, that highlights a pretty together bunch.
“We know we have got a lot better rugby league in us. We are certainly not looking for the season to be over too quick.
“We want to rubber stamp our way in the play-offs, a top four, five, eight or 11.”
The Rhinos are now back up to a 60% win percentage and are on the coattails of Warrington and Catalans who occupy the final two play-off places.
Despite closing the gap on those above them, Agar couldn’t hide his disappointment at what he described as an ‘ordinary’ performance against the Tigers.
He added: “I think in the bigger picture, right now in the aftermath of the game, when you are collecting your thoughts and you are planning for a performance and you are assessing it, I think we will look back at some ordinary stuff we did in there.
“I thought for long periods, we did not defend too badly. I thought the manner in which we conceded a couple of tries were very poor.
“Even the first one, Richie missed his assignment as a full-back and reacted way too slow from the play the ball.
“But, to come from behind like we did late on, I think you have to say ‘we have that in us’ and that is a good sign.
“It is easy to get bogged down in a game when it is not going right and to lose your way or not get back on track, but we did enough to have enough points in us.”
