Super League

Rohan Smith says his halfbacks aren’t performing at their best

by
Cam Pattison
March 2, 2023

Halfbacks always seem to be under more pressure than any other players in Super League.

That is especially the case at a club like Leeds Rhinos with Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer trying to live up to the legacy of the likes of Kevin Sinfield, Danny McGuire and Rob Burrow.

Many have been critical of the duo during their time at Leeds but they haven’t been helped by injuries.

Speaking this week, coach Rohan Smith gave his view of how they have performed at the start of this season:

“Bits and pieces I would say they haven’t been at their best clearly, but neither has the team. I’m of the belief that the team decides how the halves play, equally as much as the halves determine how the team payers. You can’t have one without the other.

“Those guys will be the first to admit that they can find a bit more.

“I’m confident we’re going to play better footy this week and really have a crack.”

When asked if it takes longer for halfbacks to get up to speed in a season, Smith said: “I’ve never considered that as a concept but thinking about it I’d say it’s more of an individual thing, rather than a positional thing.

“I think some player start seasons well and some take a bit of going. I came here round 11 or something like that last year and some guys hadn’t really got firing but had a cracking end to the season. I think you want to be at a solid level often and then have a little peak or a tiny trough here or there but trying to maintain a consistent solid level of performance is what everyone’s chasing.”

When asked when his team will begin to fire on all cylinders, Smith said:

“I’m not Nostradamus that’s for sure. I don’t what ‘on full cylinders’ means, it’s trying to find a good level of performance every week and get enough results go your way. Really you want to be firing on full cylinders at the end of the year, there’s a lot of teams over the year that start like a house on fire and fall in a heap. We haven’t started great but it hasn’t been all bad despite the zero and two win loss.

“I’m not sure where our top end can be, we’re a new group. The spine hardly played together last year, we’ve got a bunch of new players so we’re just trying to evolve and improve from week to week and work out what we are and who our best players are.”