Leeds Rhinos Head Coach Rohan Smith was relatively pleased after his side won their opening game against Salford Red Devils.
However, he warned fans after their 22-16 win over Paul Rowley’s men that sport is rarely smooth.
He said: “I don’t know if sport’s ever smooth. You guys and the fans are all looking for a smooth journey, like which club has that? We want more wins, that’s really what we’re chasing and everyone goes home happy because we’ve had a win. I think the calmness and the togetherness and just the way that players are talking after the game that everyone was all good regardless of the stoppages and the scoreboard at times that we were chasing points, they were all together and confident that they could get a result so that’s a good sign to have in round one with the new group. It’s on again next week, it’s game one of a marathon.”
Leeds Rhinos boss provides injury update
Leeds Rhinos v Hull FC Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com – 24/02/2023 – Rugby League – Betfred Super League Round 2 – Leeds Rhinos v Hull FC – Headingley Stadium, Leeds, England – Leeds s Derrell Olpherts is tackled by Hull FC:s Jordan Lane & Brad Fash.. Leeds Headingley Stadium England
Speaking of things not being smooth, Smith confirmed that winger Derrell Olpherts will miss next week’s game whilst star David Fusitu’a could be out for two months:
“Derrell had quite a bad hip pointer injury in the friendly against Hull KR. So he’s got a couple of weeks to go most likely. Fusitu’a has been managing an knee injury and he could have had surgery or maybe not. We decided to go the conservative approach. But the other day he strained his calf. It’s a decent strain so we’ve decided he’ll have surgery on his knee. Probably about six to eight weeks is the forecast at this point but we won’t know until he has surgery early in the week.”
Smith did note how this is a chance for a youngster like Luis Roberts to impress:
“It’s not what you plan where you lose two experienced wingers pretty much two weeks back to back but that’s life and we’ve got a lot of belief in the kids coming through and Lewis has had a great pre-season, he’s played really well and he did a good job today under pressure. He got tested there with Sneyd and I think the one error he made was Newman took him out more than the ball so he’s a good kid, the boys love playing with him so we expect him to grow and find some more footy in the next little bit.”
Challenge Cup
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