“Hasn’t convinced me yet” – Brad Arthur fires warning to Leeds Rhinos star

Leeds Rhinos kept their playoff hopes alive with a 30-4 win over Wigan Warriors at Headingley yesterday, marking the second win of Brad Arthur’s tenure and the Australian has now given his verdict.

The victory means Arthur’s side are just four points shy of the top six with six games remaining, starting with a tough test against Warrington Wolves at Magic Weekend on Saturday.

Leeds Rhinos will have their captain Cam Smith back for that after he served his suspension but head coach Arthur was keen to compliment those who had stepped up in place of the likes of Smith.

Speaking post-game, the 50-year-old said: “As a club, we need to get to the stage that when guys come in they know what their job is and the jersey number that they wear is what their responsibility is and it doesn’t matter really who steps into that duty.”

He’d even single one player out, stating: “Blokes got opportunities today and I was pleased for Bentley today because his discipline let him down last week and I really challenged him on that and he was good today for us and he stayed in control.”

Bentley has recently returned to the side after long-running concussion issues but the Irish international put in an impressive performance and kept his cool after a swinging arm from Harry Smith late on.

Arthur learning to trust Leeds Rhinos man

Smith was sent with minutes to go in the game after dropping onto Bentley and making contact with his head, something Sky Sports’ Sam Tomkins described as “ugly”.

It was an accumulation of several flashpoints with the England international losing his head late on but Arthur was quick to replace James Bentley immediately after too and he explained why.

“I just took him off to get Tom out there and give him an extra couple of minutes and just to make sure because he still hasn’t convinced me yet with his aggression that he can keep a lid on it.

“He was really good today but with a couple of minutes to go, I thought he’s done a good job so let’s finish on a positive with him.”

Another player who came off late was winger David Fusitu’a who has suffered plenty of injury problems during his time at Leeds Rhinos and there were concerns again when he came off late on, however, Arthur confirmed that the winger simply had cramps.

On Ben Littlewood’s debut, Arthur added: “For Ben, it’s the first time he’s taken the field and he’ll remember it forever. I was getting a bit nervous about how and when I was going to get him on but that’s a credit to the players because they allowed me to do that.”