After being thumped 42-10 last night by Warrington Wolves to start the Super League season, there are already questions being asked of Leeds Rhinos.
Those questions were naturally put to Rohan Smith last night who conceded his side started slowly:
“We clearly started a little slow on the physical stakes. They got on the front foot quite early and I think the class of the opposition’s spine built on the momentum that their big guys got.”
Asked if he could have rescued the game, Smith said: “At what point are you rescuing? I don’t know, maybe I could have made some more changes earlier in the game perhaps but I didn’t think it was fatigue that was causing the issue.
“I feel it was everything just sort of rolling their way and even at times when we made a tackle or the ball hit the ground, it was one of those days where it bounced their way. That was probably due to us just not being urgent or purposeful enough at times.”
In terms of the positives, Smith said: “Another opportunity next week. I thought the second half, or most of the second half we were in a battle. Granted that’s an opposition that had the scoreboard covered but I thought we found out about the group and sticking together. They had a lot more plays than us in the first half and it’s always hard chasing your tail.
“We’ve started a bit slow in our last pre-season match and we started a bit slow today, that’s maybe something to think about. It’s round one and for sure we’re all very disappointed and you can read a lot into it, but also read too much into it.”