Brad Arthur has shut down any talk of Leeds Rhinos winning the Super League title despite his side’s dominant win over Hull KR.
The Rhinos won 34-8 to complete the double over Rovers as Maika Sivo scored another two tries but it was Jake Connor as the star of the show once again with the reigning Man of Steel registering his first try of the year.
Asked to give an assessment on his number seven, Arthur admitted post-match on Sky Sports: “He’s right up there. I’ve coached some really good players throughout the NRL.
“Jake’s evolution, just in the 12-month space, is massive. I went to him at halftime, and I can’t believe I said it to him. He’s the most calm and composed player in the group at the moment.
“We couldn’t have said that 12 months ago. Look, he’s come a long way. He’s done a lot of good things, but he’s put his teammates first. I think also Jake would be the first to recognise that he’s playing behind a pretty powerful forward back at the moment, which probably makes his job a touch easier.”
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Brad Arthur talks Leeds Rhinos’ dominant win
Connor’s composure influenced the whole team on what was an emotional night at Headingley as Leeds played in their annual MND Awareness game, paying tribute to Rhinos’ legend Rob Burrow.
On the performance, Arthur referenced that: “We talked early in the week on Monday because we knew the game was going to be filled with a lot of emotion around Rob. We wanted to be brave, and I thought we were extremely brave tonight.
“We put some actions towards it. The biggest one was about the collision, and I thought we were very, very good tonight in the collision and dominated it.”
Despite such a strong win, the Australian still nit-picked issues: “We were probably a bit expansive and not dumb but chancy, but we’re also hard to defend because we play like that. The response when we did make the errors was good, so I’m happy about that.
“There’s still some things I’d like to see do a little bit better in terms of building the game, earning the right, but it’s good that they got belief.”
It was a win that moved the Rhinos two points clear atop Super League and with a very favourable run of fixtures, talk is quickly turning to Leeds being serious title contenders, though he was quick to shut that down.
“It’s way too early to be talking about that,” Arthur responded.
“We’ve really narrowed into a week-to-week process. We’ve been really good at home. We’ve been really physical at home. We’ve struggled a bit away with concentration and a bit of discipline and professionalism, so we’ve worked hard on that the last couple of weeks.
“It’s Magic round this weekend, a bit of excitement. With every game you win and every game you play like that, the next week becomes even more important. That’s the challenge for the boys. It’s all about belief, having that belief, but you’ve got to come and do it every week.”
.@LeedsRhinos go into Magic WKND two points clear at the top of the @Betfred #SuperLeague table 👀 pic.twitter.com/la1tTfdf6L
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) June 26, 2026
