Leeds Rhinos written off in play-off battle as star name singled out for criticism

Leeds Rhinos may still be in the Super League play-off hunt but Sky Sports pundits Jon Wilkin and Jamie Jones-Buchanan have written them off entirely following their defeat to Wigan Warriors on Friday night.

The Rhinos lost 38-0 at the Brick Community Stadium as Brad Arthur’s side found themselves struggling to live with the intensity, physicality and skill the Warriors showcased on the night. The home side ran in a total of seven tries with the likes of Bevan French and Harry Smith pulling the strings creatively to secure the dominant win and leave them on the verge of securing the League Leaders’ Shield.

Having put 68 points on Hull FC last time out, Leeds arrived in Greater Manchester confident of picking up the win they needed to keep up the pressure on the top six. However, they now sit a point and a place behind sixth placed Leigh Leopards and with a trip to high flying Hull KR to come on the final weekend of the regular season, it’s fair to say the odds are against them.

As such, Wilkin and former Leeds man Jamie Jones-Buchanan both expect Leeds’ season to come to an end in east Hull on Friday night.

“Can you see Hull KR rolling in a bad performance in the last week of the season going into the play-offs? I just can’t see it,” Wilkin said as part of Sky Sports’ coverage of Leeds’ clash with Wigan. “Not when they’ve got a week off, they’re going to fly into them.”

Jones-Buchanan added: “Even if they did by some means end up in the top six they aren’t ready or conditioned yet to compete for a Grand Final.”

The fact that Leeds are even in the play-off race at this stage of the season shows the progress Arthur has made during his eight games in charge of the club. However, for the pundits, Friday’s performance underlines just how much work the Australian has to do at Headingley with one senior player being singled out for criticism.

“I think it’s going to take more than the period of time that he’s got to get rid of some of the cultural baggage that’s left at Leeds Rhinos,” Wilkin said. “He’s done very well in a short space of time to get a reaction and really focus on a specific area which is their defensive intensity. He’s addressed that but it’s conditioning, it’s Pavlov’s dog.

“It’s a period of conditioning, they need to be conditioned into defending like that and behaving like that. There’s too many players, like Momirovski tonight, the first eight minutes of this game were just not good enough. He was outdone, out-enthused in all of the effort areas and he’s not concentrating when you’re 10-0 down, you can’t do that against Wigan.”

Jones-Buchanan agreed: “Jon mentioned it’s cultural baggage, it’s the wheat from the chaff either as individuals or the mentality towards application. Conditioning is obviously physical, you have to manage your body to be able to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

“You have to do it with your mind as well and that takes time as well. They’re not at play-off standard or level yet.”