Super League

Exclusive: Rohan Smith on Leeds Rhinos defeat to Castleford Tigers and what needs to change

by
Cam Pattison
June 3, 2023

Rohan Smith was naturally not happy by Leeds Rhinos’ defeat to Castleford Tigers this evening to complete the Magic Weekend Day One.

Disjointed defence against their shift plays there wasn’t wasn’t anywhere near the standard and you know offensively we just didn’t didn’t take care of the ball you know that wasn’t just at the back end that was the respect for possession.

We’ve been up for it a lot lately and today our execution was just a long way off.

Performance

Defensively, were you just not able to get hold of the pace and cut off early.

Overall I thought it was a very slow game, but their shift plays had some energy to it. We just didn’t have the same or the usual level of connectedness and discipline and trust. So they created more opportunities than we would have liked to provide.

I’m not concerned with managing the lead as much as playing good, solid, complementary footy where the attack helps the defence, the defence helps the attack and the transition stuff is strong.

Tom Holroyd

No he’s got a lower leg issue and he just wasn’t, wasn’t quite right and it’s one of those sometimes happen from time to time and when you have got plenty plenty out sometimes it’s that’s the time when they happen.

Injuries

Sometimes the result of the game can be influenced by who plays and who doesn’t, but the performance wasn’t of a standard tonight. I haven’t said that very often, but the performance wasn’t there, so I’m not going to count that for who wasn’t playing.

Character

No, I think everyone that watches rugby league has seen the character that’s in our group. We’ve been backs against the wall a lot lately under a lot of pressure and today we were under a lot of pressure. Cas threw a lot at us, they competed well, threw a lot at us and we were under pressure. Sometimes when you’re under pressure you just don’t always answer the question correctly, but there’s no questioning character and spirit in that room. You don’t do what you did last week and then all of a sudden not have character.

Positives

Well, we were poor and we’re still close to a result. That’s one positive. I don’t think we have any injuries either, so that’s two positives.

Mid-Season signings

As we say each week, recruitment or retention is an ongoing process. We would look at things if there was the right person but I believe in our group, I believe in that group that played today and that performance won’t shift that. That was today’s performance so we need to get better and get ready for next week.

Addressing Errors

Practice, repetition, you know, mindset of taking our time when needed. The other thing that plays a part in that, that every team, every player in every team, in every game of rugby league anywhere in the world is trying to find a quick play of the ball. And when you’ve got two flops landing on plenty of plays, you can’t get one, so then everyone fights that little bit harder to get one, and that’s where generally where those errors come from. Like it was a flop-a-thon, like on the stats last week, it was 48 to 14 on the stats that get coded by an independent source. I’d be surprised if there’s not more there today.

Should Leeds flop more

To me it’s not about that. It’s, yeah, we could stay in the ruck longer, certainly we could do that, but it’s more, you negate the good carry that you had or the momentum that you’re generating. So how do you get that? You just have to be persistent and stick with it for longer and we didn’t do that today.