Leeds Rhinos suffered a shock loss to Catalans Dragons and head coach Brad Arthur has had his say on the defeat.
The Rhinos hadn’t conceded for 176 minutes but Ugo Tison was able to dart over after 15 minutes to set up what would become a famous 16-8 win for the Dragons, beating Leeds for a second time this season.
There was no Jake Connor but his absence can’t explain what was one of Leeds’ worst performances of the season, with his half-back partner Brodie Croft one of those who really struggled, despite registering an assist and scoring a try.
Speaking post-match to Sky Sports, head coach Brad Arthur pulled no punches in his honest assessment, labelling the performance as ‘frustrating’.
“When we’re bad, we’re very bad,” Arthur admitted in the most telling line of his post-match interview as he pointed to players playing as individuals, and not as a team.
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Brad Arthur left ‘frustrated’ by Leeds Rhinos loss
Asked what he made of the result, the Rhinos boss admitted: “We got frustrated. We had lots of opportunity in the second half, and even in the first half but there was just some real detail that we got wrong.
“We had a couple of 40-20s kicked against us and then we panicked with our last plays down at the try line. Credit to those guys, they scrapped hard, they fought hard. They made a couple of last-ditch desperation tackles on the try line.
“We just had a couple of guys not nail their jobs tonight.”
He would then deny the suggestion that his players had expected an easy night, instead explaining: “I just think that blokes probably tried too hard to try and do it on their own instead of just everyone nailing their job and getting their job done.
“I thought our forwards did enough and paved the way but I’m not sure if we took them easy because I thought we were OK physically and our effort was there, but our concentration wasn’t there.”
The Rhinos had an incredible 40 play the balls in the Catalans 20 but only came away with eight points, the fewest that Leeds have scored since July when they were nilled by St Helens.
Arthur responded: “Yeah, it was very disappointing. We’ve proven that when we’re on top of our game, we’re OK. But I think tonight was one of those nights where we beat ourselves.
“When we’re bad, unfortunately, we’re very bad, and that was frustration.”
If St Helens beat Leigh Leopards on Friday night then Leeds are not guaranteed a top four spot and a home semi-final and whilst Arthur will be watching, he’ll be more focused on what the Rhinos need to do next week.
He confirmed: “I’ll be watching but at the end of the day, we’ve got plenty of work that we need to get on top of for next week against Wigan.
“It was a massive opportunity that we missed but we can’t do anything about it right now. The only thing we can do is respond.”
As for Jake Connor’s fitness, the Australian confirmed: “He’s a chance (to play against Wigan.”
FULL TIME
Rhinos 8 – 16 Dragons
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