Rohan Smith on whether he would have done anything differently at Leeds Rhinos and why they narrowly missed out on Super League games

FOR former Leeds Rhinos head coach Rohan Smith, he stands by everything he did at Headingley during his two-year stay.

The Australian left the club last month following a run of disappointing and inconsistent results.

But Smith remains defiant that Rhinos have achieved a lot during his time in charge at the club.

“You can reflect on things and choose moments and decisions, but the alternative decision doesn’t necessarily mean it would have worked out better,” Smith said. League Express.

“You do what is right for the club at the time with the information you have. Every decision was made in the interest of what was happening at the time.

“A lot of things came up and a lot of things that happened in two years that were both good and bad that influenced how things happened on the field.

“There has been a real commitment to making decisions that help the future and not making panic decisions in recruiting additional players or giving long-term deals to players who won’t fit the mold in years to come.

“The benefit of hindsight is not very beneficial. You looked at the forecast and why decisions were made.

“I think we achieved a lot, especially during the pre-season, in the way we connected the group. We wanted to be a very good operational team, which we haven’t been in previous seasons.

“It was very much the beginning of a new beginning. I thought we did a lot, it was a few shows before we were in a solid place to build towards the end of the year.

For Leeds, a number of results have been closely fought – and lost – such as a 30-24 defeat at home to Huddersfield Giants in April and an 18-8 loss to St Helens in March.

So why have Leeds been unable to get over the line on numerous occasions this season?

“There are a lot of small margins in sport and it’s been a very closely fought Super League season – more so than others,” Smith continued.

“There are always moments in games that influence the outcome and I think most games we were really in the fight until the second half, which is nice.

“However, the ability to go forward, we just didn’t play our best stuff for a long time in a lot of games, which made our position in the ladder not quite where it needed to be.”

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