Frustrated boss Brad Arthur blamed “simple execution of skill” after Leeds Rhinos’ scoreless run at Catalans Dragons continued for a third successive game.
Rhinos were beaten 11-0 at Stade Gilbert Brutus on Saturday, having lost 26-0 there last year and 61-0 in 2023.
It was a miserable evening for Leeds’ travelling fans and Arthur admitted his side let themselves down in the rugby league basics.
Catalans led 1-0 at half-time, through a drop goal on the final play and grabbed two tries off Leeds’ mistakes in the second half.
The visitors went close in the opening moments and had a touchdown disallowed by the video referee just before the interval, but rarely looked like getting over the line.
Arthur had no issues with Rhinos’ effort and attitude, but blasted: “It was frustrating in terms of some of the simple execution of our skill.
“We had a poor completion rate and didn’t build any pressure. You can’t do it one week and not the next – we need to be more reliable and consistent in that.
“It is a simple game and we just didn’t do the simple things good enough. It felt like we had to defend our tryline for long periods and we did that, but when we did we put ourselves under pressure again and found ourselves back on the tryline.
“We created some opportunities, but some simple skill let us down. The effort and attitude was there, but we need to execute our roles better, from one to 17.”
Leeds’ Jake Connor was sin-binned for an alleged dangerous tackle in the first half, shortly after Catalans forward Romain Navarette received similar punishment.
“I’ve seen plenty of crushers this year that have been put on report and not penalised. I didn’t think it was a crusher,” Arthur said of the incident involving Connor.
Rhinos were without winger Ryan Hall because of a rib injury, but Arthur is hopeful he will be available for Friday’s Betfred Challenge Cup tie at St Helens.
Scrum-half Matt Frawley failed a head injury assessment, ruling him out of the next game, but was “okay” in the changing rooms afterwards.
Australian Ethan Clark-Wood, who joined Rhinos last month, replaced Hall on the right-wing for his Super League debut and Arthur said: “It is hard coming into a new team after only training for a couple of weeks, but I thought he did a pretty good job. He certainly didn’t cost us the result.”
Leeds Rhinos now have a short turnaround to Friday’s Challenge Cup fourth round tie at St Helens.
Arthur insisted: “The good thing about rugby league is you’ve got next week.
“You are only as good as your last game and at the moment, our last game wasn’t great. We’ll keep their spirits up and tidy up some execution around our skill and get stuck into it next week.”
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