‘We’ve got 12 players and more than 50% of our salary cap out’ – Agar bemoans injuries as Tetevano set for another ban

Leeds just about overcame Huddersfield at Headingley tonight, 18-12, but Rhinos head coach Richard Agar believed his side did more than enough to be further ahead by the end.

“Huddersfield can prove a tough team to break down at times and I thought we dominated for long periods,” Agar said.

“I’m not sure how it only ended up six points difference on the scoreboard, but it was a very spirited and committed performance.

“Making so many changes to our team, I understand why our attack was not as fluid and fluent as we would have liked.”

The Leeds boss bemoaned a couple of decisions as well as the fact that his side were down to the bare bones.

“There we re a couple of decisions, we kicked away on play three and a penalty and sinbin – you’ve got to be very careful now on those and Zane (Tetevano) will probably get a ban.

“Zane was committed to the tackle – if the halfback shows and goes he gets through the line.

“Callum did some good stuff, but he hasn’t played a lot of rugby in 80 minutes and I thought defensively he was really solid.

“I know it’s a focus, but we’ve got 12 players and more than 50% of our salary cap sat out.”

Agar also faced injury problems during the game as Ash Handley went off the field, with Brad Dwyer not even supposed to be playing.

“Ash Handley’s groin tightened up and he was our nominated goal kicker out so we drew straws after the second try over who would be kicker.

“It’s frustrating for him because we play a lot of rugby and injuries are happening across the board.

“Brad Dwyer shouldn’t have played and Im sure I will get lambasted for playing him the last 11 minutes.

“Brad has been on a sick bed the past few days and we thought he might have COVID but he passed all his tests.

“He was really unwell until the warm up tonight – we wanted to get through the 80 minutes without using him if we could but we needed that injection of energy at the end there.”