LEEDS RHINOS took home a 26-6 win against Castleford Tigers at The Jungle tonight.
Despite dominating the first-half completely, the Tigers couldn’t breach the Rhinos line, with the scores locked at 0-0 at half-time before Rohan Smith’s side turned the screw in the second forty minutes.
Following the result, Smith spoke to the press about the result, saying: “It was an extremely strong defensive performance with the amount of possession they had in particular in our own half,” Smith said.
“I thought they played really well, stretched our edges and found some good kicks to get repeat sets. We were camped in our half the whole half but we were very difficult to break down as we have been all season.
“They found it hard to break us down and our kick defence and team effort towards it was outstanding.
“Lachlan Miller was everywhere where the ball was. I thought we finished the half well, we still had the energy and intent despite not having any field position.
“The second-half, we came out and put our foot down straight away, Sam Lisone had a couple of big plays and the referee had to give a couple of penalties. We were commanding.”
Smith continued to praise Lisone for his impact in getting the Rhinos on the front foot.
“He certainly had some impact on that first-half when he came on with his carries. It’s tough for big people out there on that field. It was extremely heavy in the middle which you’d expect with the rain we have had.
“The ground looked perfect before the game. The middles on both teams did well to keep their feet throughout the game.”
Smith’s Rhinos came out a different side in the second-half and the Australian has revealed what he said at half-time.
“I felt we looked like we had the most energy at half-time even though they almost had 50 extra plays than us.
“Everyone looked calm at half-time and not too flustered with the amount of defence we had to do. The message at half-time was similar to the one before the game: crack on and see how it goes.”
Lachlan Miller, who scored twice for the Rhinos, came in for praise.
“I thought his ball selection in attack was great. He’s good at beating the first bloke and can do that at any time but today he was running hard and not looking for space too much. He was looking to break tackles offensively.
“The ball ends up in his hands, deservingly so, but his defensive work in that first-half gave us the chance to do that in the second-half.”
Leeds did have two concussion concerns with both Harry Newman and James Bentley leaving the field. Whilst Newman passed his HIA, his lip was severely cut.
“We lost Harry Newman early on and then we lost James Bentley in the first-half. We lost a back-rower and centre in the first-half which was unusual.
“Newman passed his HIA but he has got a nasty split to his lip which will need a fair few stitches when he gets to hospital. Hopefully there’s nothing structurally wrong but we will find out once he goes.
“Bentley failed his HIA but he is feeling ok in there now which is number one priority at this point. He will be out for a couple of weeks.”
Smith also explained why Tom Holroyd didn’t play.
“Tom Holroyd has got a badly bruised elbow from the incident last week where, after he grabbed Jack Welsby, somebody tackled him into the wall and he banged his elbow.
“It is significantly impacted so we thought tonight we had a lot of middles competing for minutes, so Tom played for the good of the team last year through injuries but given we had fresh and fit people available today I didn’t need Tom to push through that.”
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