Rohan Smith ‘proud’ of Leeds Rhinos effort, with score an unfair reflection

Leeds Rhinos head coach Rohan Smith felt the score was not a fair reflection of his side’s efforts after they were held scoreless by Catalans Dragons. Steve McNamara’s side ran out 26-0 winners in Perpignan, keeping the Rhinos within two play-off points.

In a blistering game, Leeds rarely threatened to score as the Catalans were the beneficiaries of Rhinos’ errors, Tom Johnstone’s try from a Jack Sinfield free helping them open up a 14-0 lead after the break .

It was a frustrating evening for Leeds, but despite that, Smith still found positives in the performance, which came without a number of regulars missing through injury.

“I thought it was a really tough game,” Smith told Sky Sports. “We lacked a little bit of execution there, the score, I think there’s been a bunch of games lately where the battle was a lot tougher than the score reflected, but that’s the nature of the sport sometimes. It’s hard to accept but I’m really proud of the effort of the players today It was very hot and we were on the back foot for a bit of the first half but I was really impressed with the way we attacked in the second half.

He added: “I thought we had a big moment there which turned the game with Johnstone long on. Our last few games probably weren’t good enough to apply enough pressure. But you know, we had a lot of youngsters there A good crack and I thought the team unity was strong today against a spirited Catalan side. They were very professional today, the opposition.”

CONTINUE READING