ROHAN SMITH has admitted that Leeds Rhinos will be joining their Super League rivals in slowing the game down following a number of ‘frustrating’ weeks.
Following Leeds’ 20-6 defeat to St Helens on Friday night – a result which saw Smith’s side crash out of the Challenge Cup – the Leeds boss aired his concerns about the regression of scrutiny of the ruck.
“I had concerns last week, that the number of flops escalated, and not just in our game,” Smith said.
“Markers are standing next to each other again. All the things that were spoken about, have gradually, or not so gradually, regressed.
“What can you do? I haven’t spoken about it to our players, we’ve just got to get used to it.
“We’ve got to join them. We’ve got to get better at flops. We’ve got to get more consistent at being offside.”
In his pre-match press conference ahead of Leeds’ clash against Castleford Tigers on Thursday night, Smith explained that his players will now be joining in in slowing the game down.
“I think the fans and the game itself spoke about wanting a quicker and more entertaining game but then it’s about results,” Smith said.
“If the game is slow then we will have to join it and slow it down. I also don’t know if there will be changes under the new regime but at the moment we need to join it (in slowing the game down).
“The crowd are the ones that miss it, you can hear the frustration amongst the fans but it is what it is and we have to play the game as it’s adjudicated.
“We have clearly got plenty of scope to improve our performances. We expect to play well and go into every game thinking we can.”
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