Richard Agar explains why it went wrong for him in the end at Leeds Rhinos identifying the player he missed

The one thing you have to say about Richard Agar is that he’s one of the best people in our game to listen to.

He’s honest and frank about every issue even on why things didn’t work out for him at Leeds in the end.

Agar spent nearly three years in charge at Headingley leading them away from relegation in 2019, winning the Challenge Cup in 2020 and taking the Rhinos to the Super League semi-finals last season but his good work seemed to unravel at the start of this year culminating in his decision to step aside with Rohan Smith eventually taking over.

No doubt a difficult decision for Agar to make, he opened up on Sky Sports about what went wrong at the end for him as he was Sky’s guest for Leeds’ battle with Hull KR.

“When I left, I felt there was a good rugby league team in there,” Agar said, “A rugby league team where over three years has been able to score points and I would say with four good players coming into the squad.

“Obviously, they’ve had some disruption to the squad but I said at the time when I left, I thought they needed to get on board together a bit more and I think Rohan has done that and they’re playing more cohesively than what they were doing early in the season.

“I’d look to personnel too. Richie Myler got injured in Round One and I think Richie has been for two or three years whether in the halves or fullback and has been very prominent to the productivity of the Leeds attack.

“It was a talented team and there was plenty going on and I knew there were some battles I just wasn’t going to win.”

From these comments you can gauge that Agar felt Myler was a massive loss which is a fair assessment considering 2021 started in similar form for the Rhinos with Myler again suffering with injury.

The stats back it up with Myler scoring six tries in his last three games and getting over 20 tries and assists combined last season for the Rhinos.

He also won the Lance Todd Trophy under Agar in 2020 as Agar oversaw his development into a top fullback.

It also seems Agar just couldn’t resolve some problems within the squad with a new voice perhaps needed which is something Agar himself recognised as he stepped down.