LEEDS RHINOS head coach Rohan Smith has had his latest say on Nene MacDonald’s issue as well as explaining how his players have reacted to the 50-0 thrashing by Wigan Warriors last weekend.
MacDonald hasn’t played since returning to Australia for the birth of his child last month with the Papua New Guinea centre linked with an exit from Headingley.
However, Smith hasn’t had communication with MacDonald for a number of weeks.
“There has been no update on Nene, that is an ongoing process at the moment. He is still unavailable,” Smith said.
“I had exchanged a few text messages a few weeks ago, that was the last time I had communication with him.
“It’s been left to Gary and Nene’s management to sort out where that goes. I’m not going to speculate about anything, there hasn’t been an update on the last four or five days since I was last asked that question.
“We will be looking forward to a resolution which will be the best for Nene and his young family and the club.”
Following such a disappointing defeat last weekend, Smith has explained how his players have reacted.
“We will do our best to play the best way we can this weekend. We are not looking too far ahead and not going to try things we haven’t practiced.
“We want to see a response and we have seen one in training, the players were very disappointed and upset but I’ve been really proud how they have handled it.
“They have come into work and to embrace the opportunity of improving. It has been an uncomfortable position for us all to be in but the only thing we can do is fight through it.
“It dents all of us, we are disappointed and we have had two games in the whole season where the opposition has scored 30 points or more.
“In some ways, our defence has been reliable, we were beaten to the punch to a few kicks at the weekend. We are a young team playing on a hot day against a really good team. We have taken lessons from that.”
Smith was also asked if he believes he is still the right man for the job.
“Nothing has changed in one result. That question wasn’t asked last week, nothing changes in one result in my head or in reality. That’s something for you guys to speculate about no doubt, I will just keep getting on with things.”
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