Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur conceded his side were ‘blown off the park’ by Wigan Warriors’ with Bevan French being instrumental. The Rhinos were second best from the first minute at the Brick Community Stadium and conceded seven tries to lose 38-0 to the league leaders.
French scored two on the night for the Cherry and Whites, while Jake Wardle, Liam Marshall, Kaide Ellis, Abbas Miski and Adam Keighran also touched down for the home side, with Leeds being unable to hold the Warriors off.
It came as a huge blow to Leeds’ hopes of finishing inside the top six, with the West Yorkshire side now needing to beat Hull KR on the final day of the campaign next week and hope results elsewhere go their way.
Arthur was understandably frustrated after the game, but admitted his team just couldn’t live with Wigan for huge periods.
“We can’t take anything away from the opposition, they were way too good for us tonight,” he told Sky Sports. “They were clinical and we didn’t match them physically, they were better than us right across the park.
“We had a poor start but I felt like we did alright to fight our way back in, we just didn’t get any field position. They dominated us physically and that’s why we didn’t get the field position. They were just too good for us.”
Of course, French is someone Arthur knows well having coached him at Parramatta Eels. As such, he knows all about how good he can be when given time and space and that’s exactly what Leeds gave him.
“You can do as much preparation as you like on him but they dominated physically and that didn’t allow us to do a good enough job on anyone. He was very good, he’s a very good player and he was a big difference for them,” he added.
On Leeds Rhinos’ final game of the season, Arthur said: “I just want to see a better performance. It’s out of our control now what happens next week but what is in our control is our response to that and that certainly wasn’t the way we want to finish our season. We were blown off the park physically and I’m not happy about that.”
