Rohan Smith explains why Leeds Rhinos lost to Leigh Leopards

Yesterday, Leeds Rhinos’ woes were added to as they lost to Leigh Leopards making it three defeats on the spin after defeats to St Helens and Hull KR stopped their momentum following wins over Warrington Wolves, Huddersfield Giants and Salford Red Devils.

Things are odd at the club with Blake Austin being allowed to make a deadline day move to Castleford Tigers with no replacement drafted in.

Following this they lacked his quality against Leigh. That was certainly a reason for their defeat but what did Rohan Smith state as the reasons behind the defeat.

“It was a good contest, tough physical game again we were there or there abouts,” he said on YouTube.

“We were beaten in a couple of critical moments defensively but overall I thought our defence was excellent against a very good attacking team.

“We had some position ourselves but we probably didn’t execute as well as we would have liked and didn’t find the main road.

“I thought the rest of the game we struggled to get a roll on in the rest of the game.”

He was happy with his side’s showing and revealed some worries for the side going into the game:

“It was a good, hard and physical game and we had a lot of young kids playing in that game today that will be helped by a game like this. It will help them.

“But I can’t fault the effort from our guys today for sure. There were three or four players who were severely under the weather going into that game and they dug in and never hesitated and there were plenty of young kids so there was plenty to learn and plenty to be proud of.”

That said he did highlight some incorrect calls:

“I thought both those were wrong decisions but they are fine lines and you would like to think that over the course of the season they balance themselves out but they were huge moments in the game.

“I only saw one replay of the Roberts tackle but the player reaction showed you. They are big moments but there were other big moments that we had control of.”