Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur was left feeling annoyed with his side’s efforts against Huddersfield Giants, despite them scoring 10 tries.
The Rhinos racked up 56 points, only two behind their season highest (58 v Hull KR in Las Vegas), but they also conceded 22 points – and it is that stat that has left Arthur with some bones to pick.
Brodie Croft scored four of those 10, whilst Maika Sivo crossed for his 13th try of the season.
However, the four tries conceded is what Arthur focused on, with the boss revealing his frustrations to Sky Sports post-match.
“[Defence] needs to be more important to us at the moment,” Arthur said. “We just lack a bit of concentration at times and I’m more than happy to back them when we move the ball and we take a few chances and we want to play like that.
“I’m happy to do that but our response when we come up with an error or we don’t turn the ball over how we want to turn it over, we need to respond better with our defence.
“Right from the start, the kick-off went out on the full and we need to show more desperation on our try line. There were plenty of positives. Look, there’s plenty of positives.
“You’re always chasing that perfection and unfortunately you’re never going to get it. We know that but we also know we’re better than that.
“It keeps us grounded, but they mightn’t touch a footy [in training] this week, it might just be all defence.”
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Leeds Rhinos boss a candidate for England head coach role
After revealing earlier this week that he had been interviewed for the vacant England head coach role, Arthur again reiterated how much it would mean for him to be given such a huge opportunity.
He, alongside Paul Rowley, Sam Burgess and a number of others are said to be the frontrunners for the job, and a decision is set to be made in the next few weeks.
Asked how he thought the interview went, the Leeds boss revealed: “I think it went alright, I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them.
“Look, it’s exciting. I love the opportunity. My club’s right behind me. I’m very grateful to get the interview to start with.
“I’m very grateful for the club for putting me in this position. But probably more grateful for the players because if they weren’t playing well and they weren’t buying in, it wouldn’t be in consideration.
“There’s four or five good coaches in the mix and we’ll see what happens.”
