Brad Arthur issues defiant Leeds Rhinos promise as Presley Cassell role confirmed

Leeds Rhinos head coach Brad Arthur has promised a stark improvement from his side in their clash against Warrington Wolves, following their surprise loss to Hull FC last time out. 

The Headingley outfit slumped to a 24-16 defeat against the Airlie Birds last Sunday, marking their second defeat in a row following their exit from the Challenge Cup against Wakefield Trinity too.

Arthur was not afraid to vent his frustration out at full-time, either, describing his side’s performance as ‘unprofessional’ before calling for his players to ‘put their egos away’ after what had been a red-hot start to the new season.

‘I can guarantee it won’t happen again’

While the scoreboard might not reflect it, Leeds were comfortably second-best at the MKM Stadium. After initially taking a 2-0 lead through the boot of Jake Connor, Leeds found themselves 14-2 down after just 12 minutes and were then kept scoreless in the second-half as Hull again grabbed the game by the throat.

The performance on Sunday was a far cry from where Leeds have been this season, and Arthur has promised his side will not produce a replica of it this weekend at home.

“We’re very embarrassed that we let a lot of people down, nobody more than ourselves, said the head coach. “I can guarantee it won’t happen again.

“There’ll be consequences mainly around game-time, guys want lots of minutes, but they’ve got to earn them.

“I think everyone is entitled to make a mistake; we’ve all made plenty in our lives, but there won’t be any repeat offenders. I’m going to stick up for our team because I know how they all feel about what happened, but we need to move on from it. Our guys care about our club and our performance, but it just wasn’t up to our standard.

“I can handle getting beat, he continued. “But it was the manner of it.”

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Arthur’s confidence is backed up by his side’s efforts throughout the week, with the head coach detailing his players have already taken accountability for their loss and responded in training.

“It’s been good,” he said on their training efforts this week. “Ever since I’ve been here, they’ve been able to handle the accountability and keeping each other accountable.

“When I talk about attitude, it doesn’t mean effort; there was no lack of effort or desire or want to win, it was just the attitude to performance and a few things that happened around the peformance that was unlike us.

“I’ve been firm with them at training, but they’ve been really good with their responses. If we’re doing that consistently, then it’s a different story; but it’s a one-off, and I’m going to ensure it’s a one-off.

“The responsibility for performances stops and starts with me, so I need to own that, and I’m sure you won’t see it again.”

The Rhinos have made just one change to their wider 21-man squad for the game against Warrington on Sunday, with Presley Cassell replacing Ben Littlewood, but Arthur confirmed he is likely to feature as the 18th man as things stand.

“He’s probably more likely 18th man at the moment, just to get more time into him.

“We’ve got a reserves match against Warrington tonight (Friday, 27th March) so he’ll get some gametime there and then be in the 18 come gameday (on Sunday).”

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