Rohan Smith reveals how he felt following shock defeat

Rohan Smith revealed how he felt after Leeds Rhinos’ defeat.

After saying the Rhinos had “let themselves down” and they were “disappointed”, Smith said:

“I feel low after every poor performance, loss, the losses never leave it coach, I don’t think. You learn to deal with them a bit better but you tend to carry them with you. There’s a lot of hurt and disappointment, me personally, and in the dressing room.

“There’s a lot of hurt, it’s not standard, it’s not close to the standard. So, we’ve got to find it quick.”

Leeds have a week off with the Rhinos out of the Challenge Cup. They take on Huddersfield Giants next.

Ahead of this, Smith said:

“Maybe a good time to dwell on it and think things through on an individual basis and for us as a coaching staff to identify the areas we think we can improve on quickest and being ready for the players to come back in and prepare for the hardest field game.

“There will be a bunch of players likely to be available after the break as well, well so that’ll drive some competition and some fresh energy. Sometimes it’s good to dwell on bad performance for a while and work out how much you want to fight through the other side and that’s part of what I just said to the guys. It’s probably a very similar situation to last year.

“You can you know you can choose to fight or you can choose to tap out you know and that’s there’s only one solution when you sign up for coaching is to to fight. Credit to Mark and his team have kept competing got themselves a result today and that guy keeps fronting up and I have much respect for that fella.”