Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur has praised the professionalism of his side’s win in Perpignan whilst also offering an injury update.
The Rhinos had been kept scoreless on their last three trips to the Stade Gilbert Brutus but that record was not extended as they won 28-6, almost keeping their opponents to nil but for a late try.
Speaking post-match in a presser shared to the Leeds Rhinos’ YouTube, Arthur admitted that he was ‘disappointed for the boys’ that they weren’t able to get the reward of a clean sheet after what he felt was a clinical performance.
He also praised his players for sticking to the game plan of dominating possession and controlling the game from the off, something that was vital in the French heat.
Arthur explained: “I was really happy with our start to the second half where it boiled over a little bit but we didn’t lose our head and we were able to calm ourselves down and get back to what we needed to do.
“I think we had 60-plus percent possession and they had to use five changes in the first half because of it. We wanted to keep it simple, come here and get the result and we thought we could do it through our possession count.”
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Making the win more impressive is that they lost prop Cooper Jenkins after less than a quarter of the match but Arthur allayed any fears of a major injury, whilst also offering updates on both Mikolaj Oledzki and Jake Connor.
“We lost Cooper Jenkins early, he just had blurred vision and after 15 or 16 minutes he came off and didn’t come back on,” he said.
“Mikolak (Oledzki), he just had a bit of a stinger and didn’t come back on. He could have but we didn’t need to put him back out there.”
As for Connor, he confirmed: “He’s fine, his neck got crunched up and he had a stinger in that shoulder.”
Looking at who stepped up as a result of Jenkins’ early interchange, Arthur said: “There were some big performances. I thought Chris Hankinson was really tough tonight, I tried to give him a bit of a reward at the end with ten minutes off.
“We also had four guys with milestones tonight which was great for them, they were all tremendous as well.”
The milestone players were Danny Levi (200 career appearances), Jake Connor (300 career appearances), Kallum Watkins (300 Leeds Rhinos appearances) and Tom Holroyd (100 career appearances).
