David Furner bemoans soft Leeds and wasted opportunity

James Gordon

Leeds coach David Furner blasted a soft first half performance that contributed to their defeat at Hull KR on Thursday night.

Coming in to the game off the back of their dramatic golden point victory over Castleford last week, the Rhinos were blown away in the first half as they trailed 31-10, eventually going down 45-26.

Furner told Sky Sports: “To concede 31 points in the first half is what I call very soft.

“Second half we had the opportunity to get back in to the game, but the drop out going out on the full hurt us.

“I asked the players to show me a bit more attitude which they did. I asked for commitment and I thought we had that, and we got ourselves in a position where I thought we could get the points.

“The couple of kicks that went out on the full stopped our momentum.

“We had the opportunity to get back in to that match, we were capable of scoring points in the second half, but 31 points in the first half was not good enough.

“We don’t need to panic. I think the disruption of Richie (Myler) not playing didn’t help, we were a bit clunky, though that didn’t affect our defensive line.”

Leeds are off Super League action next week, instead they welcome League One side Workington to Headingley in the Challenge Cup.