Brad Arthur makes honest admission on Leeds Rhinos’ top two hopes

Leeds Rhinos head coach Brad Arthur feels his side could still crack into the top two come the end of the season, but insists it will be no easy task. 

The Headingley outfit currently sit fourth in the Super League table heading into Thursday night’s crucial clash against Hull KR, but a win over the table toppers could see them climb as high as second.

Leeds also come into the game against the Robins in good form, winning two on the spin and four of their last six.

‘There’s a lot of hard work between now and then’

That run of form comes at the perfect time to push the Rhinos back into contention for a home play-off tie, given Wigan Warriors and Leigh Leopards have also hit a speedbump in recent weeks as well, but Arthur is taking nothing for granted just yet.

“We’re on the improve, but we have to make sure we keep doing that each week and continually challenge the boys to get better,” he told members of the media.

“I like the attitude they’re coming with every week and presenting how they want to improve when things go wrong. Nobody is putting their heads in the sand or even getting ahead of themselves.

“There’s a lot of hard work between now and then (the play-offs), and it doesn’t get any easier this week. We’ve been really good at focusing on us and how we can get better, and not who we play, but rather how we play. If we continue to do that, we might give ourselves a chance to get to that end result.

“There are more twists and turns in this competition.”

A home tie would not only serve as tangible evidence of their improvement under Arthur since his appointment last season, but it would also be their first home play-off tie since 2017 – the year they last won the Grand Final.

“I didn’t realise that (it was eight years since a home play-off), but that gives us extra motivation,” Arthur said.

“I think the club, our fans and our sponsors deserve a home final.”

‘We’re looking to put our best foot forward’

While Arthur might be daring to dream of a top two finish, he has the small matter of facing Hull KR to deal with first.

Like Leeds, KR also come into the game bang in form with four wins from their last six – including a vital win over Wigan Warriors – and will be looking to make it five wins on the spin at Headingley.

Facing a team in that rich vein of form, and who also sit six points clear at the top of the table with just five rounds of the regular season left, is a mighty task to contend with, but the Leeds boss insists his side are only looking at themselves heading into the game.

“It’s exciting,” the Australian coach said. “We know how good they are, but we need to focus on us and being reliable from week to week. We’ve done more good things than we’ve got wrong in our last two performances, and we need to continue to build. We were nice and professional last week and we came from behind the week before.

“We’ve shown different ways to win right throughout the season; sometimes we’ve not been at our best, but we’ve found a way to win.

“We’re going to have a tough game on Thursday, and they pipped us in the last couple of minutes last time we played them at home, so we’re looking to put our best foot forward.

Leeds also have recent experience of beating Hull KR after claiming a surprise 14-8 win over the Challenge Cup holders at Craven Park back in July, and Arthur identified the key lessons his side took away from that performance.

“We controlled the second-half, I think we only made one error in that half, and we got our execution right,” he said. “We played better field position against them, and the way we controlled that 40 minutes, we scored 14 points and kept them to nil just by how we controlled the field position.

“We’ll take a fair bit of confidence, especially after going out there and winning on their turf.”

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