BRAD ARTHUR enjoyed what he believes to be the best Leeds Rhinos performance in his time as head coach.

In little more than a year, Arthur has turned Leeds from a bottom-half side into, on the evidence of their electrifying 28-6 victory over leaders Hull KR, title challengers.

Asked if that was their best display, he said: “Yep. And I feel like it’s been building towards that.

“The last couple of weeks we’ve got on top of some red-zone errors. But I’ve got to be really careful we don’t squash our mentality in our how we play.

“I feel it’s a point of difference for us. It makes us hard to defend. Sometimes we’ve got to wear the mistakes that at times comes with it. As long as they are prepared to keep having the right attitude to defend it, I’ll live with it.

“The boys practice it, they’re not just doing it off the cuff. They put a lot of time into what we do at training.

“I’m pretty happy for the boys. They’ve worked hard. I’m really proud of the mentality of not focusing on what was missing from what our team but what was in our team and other blokes stepping up.

“They went to another level tonight for the club and their team-mates. They took the responsibility upon themselves. Keenan (Palasia) had to step up and did a great job physically.

“His start to the season was really good. He wasn’t bad after that, he was just sort of blending into games and doing his job.

“I told him people are only going to remember what you do at the back end of the season, not how good you are at the start of the season.

“I challenged him around a couple of things. I knew what I needed from him tonight and he delivered it for us.”

Teen forward Presley Cassell also impressed alongside Palasia and Arthur added: “He’s doing a great job. I always knew he had the potential.

“Now he has to do it week-to-week. The guys around him have done a good job getting him through this stage.

“He’s only going to get better and better. There’s a fair bit of potential there.”

Ash Handley was withdrawn in the second half and Arthur said: “It’s his groin, he’s been carrying it all season. I’m not sure how bad it is.”