Brodie Croft injury update as Leeds Rhinos boss clarifies concern and makes referee point

Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur felt an error by referee Tom Grant cost his side a last-gasp attempt to snatch victory at Warrington Wolves.

Betfred Super League’s 5,000th game ended in a 16-14 loss for Rhinos, after they had led 14-6 going into the final quarter, but Arthur reckoned the match should have gone on for one more play.

Rhinos were awarded the feed at a scrum inside Warrington’s half with 10 seconds remaining,  giving them an opportunity to snatch a win at the death, but referee Tom Grant allowed the clock to run down and the hooter went before the visitors could put the ball in.

In his post-match press conference, Arthur said the official told his players they hadn’t packed down in time with six players in the scrum. And the Leeds coach insisted that was the wrong call, as his team were down to 12 men with loose-forward Keenan Palasia in the sin-bin.

“We still had 10 seconds,” he said. “The likelihood of winning from there is remote, but it doesn’t matter – there’s still 10 seconds left. You can’t just blow time out, they need to know the rules; there’s only 12 players, five in the scrum – we had five in the scrum.”

Warrington’s winning try came immediately after Palasia was yellow-carded for making contact with a shoulder to opponent Lachlan Fitzgibbon’s head. Arthur didn’t want to comment on that decision – made by video referee Ben Thaler – until having watched replays, but admitted: “I’ve seen plenty of them before, so as long as they are consistent…”

Overall, Arthur felt Leeds Rhinos let the two points slip through their fingers, describing it as “a game we tried really hard and probably felt we should have got the result”. He said: “We’ve got some lessons we need to take out of it, definitely. It was a very good effort and we were good physically.

“It was a really good first half, plenty of fight and spirit and great tryline scramble. We had to defend our tryline for long periods, especially at the start of the second half, but in the end there were too many errors and penalties in the second half.

We made it tough on ourselves at times, but I was happy with the way we had plenty of fight and grit. With 20 minutes to go, if we did a couple of things different in one or two of those sets it could have been a different result for us.”

But he added: “I thought a couple of the penalties might have been a bit harsh. We can’t get through four or five rounds and be the least penalised team and then all of a sudden we get seven penalties against us in the second half. It doesn’t make sense, because we’ve worked so hard on our discipline. I need to have a look at those penalties to see if there’s something we need to do differently to tidy them up, because it’s something we’ve worked extremely hard on.”

Rhinos picked up an injury concern, losing stand-off Brodie Croft early in the second half. “He had some hamstring tightness,” Arthur revealed. “It was when we got a turnover and made half a break, he went to take off and slipped on the surface. It just wasn’t worth the risk.”

Leeds Rhinos have no game next weekend and return to action away to Salford Red Devils – where they won in Super League round two – on Thursday, April 10. “We’ll give the players a couple of days off,” Arthur confirmed. “We’ve played St Helens, Wigan and Warrington – three really good teams who physically are going to test you. I am happy how we’ve come through, not result-wise, but we’ve been right in the matches and if we just tidy up a few things all of them could have been wins.”

The Rhinos suffer a late defeat at the Halliwell Jones Stadium
FULL TIME
Wolves 16 – 14 Rhinos
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— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) March 28, 2025