
Leeds Rhinos have been accused of being ‘arrogant’ following Friday night’s loss to St Helens. Brad Arthur’s side had won five straight games heading into the clash at the Totally Wicked Stadium and deservedly sat third in the table because of that.
St Helens were one of the teams beaten on the run, while wins had come against Hull FC, Wakefield Trinity, Castleford Tigers and Warrington Wolves, too.
However, the rampant Rhinos were stopped in their tracks on Friday as they slumped to a 18-4 loss to St Helens. The Saints were underdogs for many going into the contest given the way the club have developed a habit of rolling over against the top sides in the past.
Paul Wellens’ side did enough to prove those doubters wrong though, winning 18-4 with tries coming from Deon Cross, Owen Dagnall and Tristan Sailor. Riley Lumb managed to get over for Leeds but the effort couldn’t prevent the Rhinos from being humbled on Merseyside and they now run the risk of dropping down to fourth in the table by the end of the weekend.
Pundits slam Leeds Rhinos
Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin delivered something of a scathing review after the game, outlining his belief that Leeds’ attitude was all wrong.
“I thought it was an arrogant and overconfident performance from Leeds,” Wilkin said on the live broadcast.
“I thought they approached the game with arrogance from minute one, disrespecting possession and gifting Saints possession too easily.
“Brad Arthur will be fuming at that. It’s all attitude, that. You need to give every fixture in this league the credit it deserves, and I just don’t think Leeds turned up in the mental space to play a tight game.”
Jodie Cunningham was the other pundit on the night with the England international claiming Leeds have plenty of work to do before they take on Leigh Leopards next week.
“I think we were guilty of it, singing all the praises of Leeds and the way they’ve been over the last few weeks,” she said. “I think they possibly came into this game taking Saints lightly and maybe Saints liked being the underdogs today.
“It just felt like everything Leeds have built on over the last few weeks just went away today. The effort areas that Brad Arthur spoke about weren’t there, they were pushing passes and things weren’t sticking.
“I just think in every way things went wrong for them and they didn’t find a way to fix it, they weren’t patient and there’ll be a lot of working on what went wrong tonight.”
Disappointing night for the Rhinos over at St Helens
FULL TIME
Saints 18 – 4 Rhinos
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