Rohan Smith explains the reasons behind Leeds Rhinos’ woes

Leeds Rhinos are at a real low after a 50-0 defeat to Wigan Warriors prior to losing 61-0 against Catalans Dragons as things got worse for Rohan Smith and his men.

A year ago Leeds were getting ready to play in a Grand Final and now they are having to stomach where they currently reside in the Super League table and losing by a combined scoreline of 111-0 to the two teams they beat to make the Grand Final in 2022.

Speaking on the club’s website, Smith said of the performance:

“We’re extremely disappointed with the outcome and the performance. We expect a lot better of ourselves. I think at times we lacked some physicality early on, I thought, to go meet them.

“Then at other times we were just trying too hard individually to solve things, which actually made things a lot harder.

“All of our good defence throughout most of the season and the run we went on last year was based around being very connected and team-orientated with our defensive work and we just lost that a little bit of late.

“A lot of young players, some players that are playing a bit injured and whatnot and trying too hard to get down on confidence and then trying to solve things themselves at times which often makes things harder.”

He also provided the reasons why Leeds are struggling:

“Yeah, the transition was not intended to have four senior players leave during the season and be unavailable, then you throw five or six injuries on top of that, that’s 10 or 11 of your top 22, 23 players not available. That was never a plan to have that.

“We’re learning some hard lessons and the experiences are tough. They’re tough for all of us and tough for the fans and everyone connected to the club.

“Almost everyone in their career has been through some part of this. Almost every fan has been through some part of this, whoever you follow or whoever you play for or work with. It’s a rough time but we’re just going to fight out of it and finish the season strongly next week.”