Leeds Rhinos are determined not to get “embarrassed” again when they face St Helens for the fourth time this season, coach Brad Arthur says.
Leeds picked up a convincing win at Magic Weekend, but Saints were victorious on their own turf in the Challenge Cup and a Betfred Super League round 15 clash last month.
The 18-4 league defeat at TW Stadium ended a five-game hot streak and was one of Rhinos’ poorest performances of the campaign, but since then they have bounced back with wins over top-four rivals Leigh Leopards and league leaders Hull KR.
Yesterday’s (Sunday) 14-8 success at Sewell Group Craven Park ensured Rhinos will go into Friday’s game sitting third on the ladder after wins earlier in the weekend by Leigh and Saints had demoted them two places to fifth.
With Wigan Warriors having lost to Leigh, Rhinos are now only two points adrift of second spot, however, Arthur insisted this week’s clash is all he’s concerned about.
“I haven’t looked at the table and I don’t look at it,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter to me at the minute – what matters to me is we continue to have these strong performances and we look like the team we want to be.
“We need to be able to back it up each week and we didn’t do that [against Saints] two weeks ago.”
Though Rhinos are now firmly in the mix for a home play-off, Arthur stressed: “We’re still not there yet, we have got a bit of work to do.
“If we want to start talking about that, we need to prove it this week. We have got a five-day turnaround and we can sit here and feel good about ourselves or we can move on and worry about our next opponents, who are playing some footy and pretty much embarrassed us two weeks ago.”
Leeds Rhinos belief growing
But Arthur admitted the win at Hull KR will give Rhinos added belief going into the final 10 games of the regular season.
He added: “I think it is good evidence for them around sticking to your game plan and backing yourself.
“We probably got flustered a bit at the start of the year; against Wakefield in round one we had a few opportunities and were trying to pull the trigger all the time.
“We have learned how to build our game and the team we played against build better than anyone.”
Meanwhile, Arthur was asked in his post-match press conference about an incident of alleged eye-gouging by a Hull KR player, which was placed on report.
He confirmed: “There might have been a couple of suggestions there were some hands in the eyes, but we will have to leave that to the match review committee.”
