Brad Arthur provides England update with ‘take care’ message given

Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur admitted he has yet to receive a phone call from the Rugby Football League regarding the England job.

Arthur confirmed he had been interviewed for the position early this week, with the selection panel expected to make a decision by the end of today (Friday).

Alongside Arthur, Sam Burgess, Brain McDermott, Steve McNamara and Paul Rowley were also interviewed, with the successful candidate to be given a contract until the end of the World Cup.

With a decision to be made imminently, Arthur provided an update in the aftermath of the Rhinos’ victory over Huddersfield Giants that moved them top of the table.

Asked if he’d had any further contact, he said: “No, nothing. We’ll wait and see what happens in the next week. Look, I just feel honoured and privileged that I was given the opportunity to interview for it.

“I’m really grateful to the club that they’ve supported me through it and they’re keen for me to do the job. And then also, I probably wouldn’t be in the frame or part of the consideration or the chat if the players hadn’t bought into some things that I wanted to do with the team and the club. So, the credit probably goes to them.”

Despite their big win, Arthur was disappointed with his side’s defensive efforts.

“We need to care a bit more about our defence,” Arthur said. “The boys are a bit flat in the sheds on the back of that defensive performance and for the majority,it was good, but we lacked a bit of concentration and went to sleep at times. It’s got to be more important to us.

“I’m happy to support and back how we want to play when we move the ball around and play a bit of footy, but something doesn’t quite go our way and we turn the ball over not we want to, we have to defend it.

“You have to do both sides of it. I know the kick off went out on the full but first set they scored straight away, we need to more resilient on our try line, be more urgent, desperation, we need to care more about our defence.”