Brad Arthur reveals challenge laid to Leeds players as ‘most important play’ in Wakefield win praised

Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur admits he challenged his players at half-time to show the world why they were tough enough to be regarded as Super League title contenders.

The Rhinos trailed 16-6 at half-time against Wakefield Trinity on Friday night before falling further behind when Jack Sinfield scored shortly after half-time.

16 points behind at that stage, Leeds looked out on their feet – but they summoned an inner strength to produce a stirring comeback with tries from James McDonnell, the outstanding Cameron Smith and Chris Hankinson, with three goals from Jake Connor sealing a sensational 24-22 win.

And Arthur was full of praise for how his players responded to his challenge.

Arthur praises Leeds players

Speaking after the game, Arthur said he laid down the gauntlet to his players at half-time to prove to any critics watching. He said: “It was incredibly tough. It wasn’t our best performance by any means but it was exactly the game we needed.

“It was the first time for a while we’ve been really tested, we had to fight and were put under pressure. I challenged the boys to go right to the 80th minute and we did it.

“There might have been some questions at half-time about whether these blokes are tough enough and I think they showed they are. We haven’t had to play a game of that intensity for a while. Our young blokes stood up to some real strong situations.

“I was interested to see how much character we had. Especially last year and maybe at the start of this year, we’d have self-imploded and been our own worst enemy. We chased the last tackle, scrambled hard and got ourselves back into it.”

Leeds coach singles out ‘most important play’

Both coaches delivered lofty praise to forward Smith post-match – who will play for Wakefield in 2027 but was outstanding for Leeds on Friday night.

And Arthur pointed to a critical moment when, with Leeds still trailing, Smith produced a sensational tackle to deny Cam Scott in the corner – a moment that easily could have decided the contest in Wakefield’s favour.

“The most important play of the game,” he said.

“It was a massive moment. He came on and changed the context with our attack but he did a tremendous job to make that tackle in the corner. It wasn’t long before that we had a try disallowed where they made a great tackle in the corner too.

“We’ve done the work. Under a bit of pressure we kept our composure and our key players kept our composure.

“I challenged them to show how tough they are and they certainly did that.”