Coach Brad Arthur described Leeds Rhinos’ 12-10 win against Wigan Warriors as a “building block”, but issued a warning ahead of Friday’s visit to Warrington Wolves.
Leeds ended a two-game losing run thanks to tries by Riley Lumb and Jack Sinfield, plus a penalty and conversion from Jake Connor.
They led 6-0 until Wigan scored on the final play of the first half and the visitors went four points clear in the third quarter, before Connor’s kick bounced off Ryan Hall’s head and Sinfield touched down, setting up the winning kick.
“It’s a building block, but it’s no good if we leave it here,” Arthur said in his post-match press conference.
“That’s how we need to be every week. I feel like effort-wise and physicality, we have been, it’s just with the football we’ve been a little bit inconsistent at times.”
It was veteran winger Hall’s 500th career appearance and he was given a guard of honour off the field from his teammates after the final whistle.
“I am really happy and proud for Ryan Hall,” Arthur said. “The spirit the boys played with, they wanted to make sure he came off the field a winner.
“That’s the pleasing thing for the club, the players actually care – they care about the jersey and the badge they are wearing.”
Wigan boss Matt Peet said it was the first time he had seen a try scored that way and Arthur admitted: “We will take the four points any way we can get them. At the end of the day, that’s the rules, it’s a try. It doesn’t look pretty, but we’ll take it.”
The coach was also pleased for Sinfield, who had just come on as Leeds Rhinos’ replacement hooker.
“He’s a good kid,” he said. “He tries hard and does all the right things. He is still learning his craft and he just wants to be in the team. He’s tough and physical and I am happy for him.”
With the result going down to the final play and there never being more than six points between the teams, Arthur felt the game was a good advert for Betfred Super League.
“They [Wigan] wouldn’t be disappointed with how they played either, because they played well,” he reflected. “Especially in the first half, it was high quality – we made two errors and they made three. It was end-to-end footy and a bit of attrition.
“I am really pleased and we will get a bit of confidence out of it, knowing if we stick at it and keep grinding away, those wins will become more frequent. Now we just need to add a bit of polish to what we are doing.
“We are still a growing team, one that’s had four or five months together, not four or five years. We are learning what works and how we want to play.”
With all his play-making options available, Arthur opted to go with Lachie Miller at full-back and Brodie Croft and Jake Connor in the halves, meaning no place for first-choice scrum-half Matt Frawley.
“Frawls has had a bit of an interrupted start to the season with a head knock and a hand injury,” he explained.
“I just felt like Jake has contributed a lot of big moments when we needed them, with some try assists, so I wanted to continue to have him in the team. And his goal kicking, which proved handy for us tonight.”
The coach added: “It was a tough decision because Frawls is a good, calm head, a controlling head and in those big, pressure moments he is very good. Jake is all-out attack and so is Crofty and Lachie. It’s about getting the balance right.”
Despite the win, Arthur feels his side still aren’t at their best with the ball, but reckons that will come as the spine get more time together.
“We’re getting better, but we are still miles away from where I think we can get to, especially our fluency with the ball,” the Leeds Rhinos boss said.
“We put ourselves under a bit of pressure in the second half, but the effort and physicality has been there all year..
“While we can keep that, we’ll be in the fight. We lacked a bit of cohesion at times, especially at the tryline, but that spine have had three sessions together. That’s not an excuse, it’s a reason why we look a bit clunky at times.”
