IT’S fair to say that the 2023 Super League season hasn’t gone too well for the Leeds Rhinos after the highs of a Grand Final visit in 2022.
Slipping outside the play-off spots, Rohan Smith’s men went down 50-0 to the Wigan Warriors last weekend before capitulating in the south of France to a 61-0 defeat to Catalans Dragons last night.
Now Smith has given his verdict on that result, saying: “We’re extremely disappointed with the outcome and the performance. We expect a lot better of ourselves. I think at times we lacked some physicality early on, I thought, to go meet them.
“Then at other times we were just trying too hard individually to solve things, which actually made things a lot harder.
“All of our good defence throughout most of the season and the run we went on last year was based around being very connected and team-orientated with our defensive work and we just lost that a little bit of late.
“A lot of young players, some players that are playing a bit injured and whatnot and trying too hard to get down on confidence and then trying to solve things themselves at times which often makes things harder.”
So why has Leeds’ season ended with a whimper?
“The transition was not intended to have four senior players leave during the season and be unavailable, then you throw five or six injuries on top of that, that’s 10 or 11 of your top 22, 23 players not available. There was never a plan to have that.
“We’re learning some hard lessons and the experiences are tough. They’re tough for all of us and tough for the fans and everyone connected to the club.
“Almost everyone in their career has been through some part of this. Almost every fan has been through some part of this, whoever you follow or whoever you play for or work with.
“It’s a rough time but we’re just going to fight out of it and finish the season strongly next week.”
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