Rohan Smith insists there shouldn’t be “too much” read into opening Leeds Rhinos loss

ROHAN SMITH insisted there should not be “too much” read into Leeds Rhinos’ shock opening-round hammering at Warrington Wolves.

Smith revitalised Leeds in his first half-season in charge, leading them to the Super League Grand Final, but his full campaign got off to a nightmare start.

They lost 42-10 at Warrington on Thursday, going 30-0 down in the first half alone, with defensive issues to the fore throughout as they were well beaten in the middle.

The intensity and error-making were also present in a pre-season campaign which featured three defeats to fellow Super League sides in Wakefield Trinity, Leigh Leopards and lastly Hull KR.

“We started slow in the last pre-season match, then the same here,” said a shell-shocked Smith of the Warrington defeat.

“We started a bit slow, that’s something to think about. I’m constantly reviewing my own decision-making. 

“It’s round one; it’s important for sure and we’re all very disappointed in the performance. 

“You can read a lot into it but you can read too much into it as well. We’ll dust some issues off.”

Leeds rode the crest of a wave of great form to make the play-offs and then go all the way to Old Trafford last season.

But Smith insisted the start to this season was not a complete opposite to those performances, citing goal-line defence as the main difference after seeing seven tries scored put past them by Warrington.

“Plenty of times when we won last year teams were making metres but struggled to score past us,” he said. 

“Going backwards is not what we’re striving for but we’ve got to be able to tolerate it. We couldn’t get any going back the other way.”

Sam Lisone, the prop who joined Leeds in the off-season from Gold Coast Titans, appeared particularly undercooked on debut and Smith admitted he was yet to reach full fitness.

“Sam will be better for the hit out as he’s now got a taste for how the English game is,” said the Rhinos coach, who will welcome Hull FC to Headingley this Friday.