Everything Brad Arthur said on Sivo, Connor and Leeds Rhinos after Las Vegas spectacle

Brad Arthur was delighted with his side’s performance as Leeds Rhinos thrashed Hull KR in Las Vegas. Here’s everything the Rhinos boss had to say when speaking to Love Rugby League after the game.

General thoughts

We wanted to make sure that we did ourselves proud and our fans and did the competition justice. We got an opportunity to come over and represent the Super League and represent the Leeds Rhinos. We had thousands of fans travel over and we’d seen the support, so we weren’t anticipating it to end that way.

But I was anticipating the toughness, the physicality, the real hunger that our boys showed. So it’s just our way of showing our appreciation for being given a great opportunity. We’ve had a ball. It’s been done really well, the NRL have done a great job with the organisation of it, our club, how they’ve supported us.

Maika Sivo

Well, you’ve just seen he lacked a little bit of urgency on that first kick where they got him behind him.
He’s been out of the game for a while, but it won’t take any gloss off it. He scored four tries that probably other people can’t or don’t score. He scored two last week that other people can’t score.That’s why we got him here. I’m just proud of him because it was tough for him last year. He brought his family, moved them over to the other side of the world and didn’t know anyone.

He’d done his knee. The level of expectation was huge on him. He bounced back the way he has. We were all a bit tentative when we put him out there last week. We weren’t quite sure if he’d done enough, but at what stage do you keep holding him back? He was confident. That’s what we made sure of, that he was confident to do his job. He’s done it, but he’s only going to get better.

Best performance as Leeds Rhinos head coach?

Yeah. It was great. You don’t get too many days like that, but we need to enjoy it.

Harry Newman, Jake Connor and Kallum Watkins fitness updates

Is he all right? Yeah, he’s fine. Hopefully that’s two weeks straight. Everyone’s pulled up all right. Jake was just precautionary. Kallum, when I can, I’ll give him opportunities to rest. He wants to stay there for 80 minutes, but he’s too good for this team. When we get in those sort of positions, we can afford to rest him off a bit.

Performance of the halfbacks.

Jake Connor just did it simply. He controlled the game and kicked well. It looks like he’s got so much time. Crofty brings a hoop of energy and plays fast. He’s always a threat when he carries the ball.

Have the players earned a beer?

Yes, definitely. We’ll have a beer, and we’ll do our review tomorrow before we get on the plane, so we can… What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Is that it? So we’ll do that.

Ethan O’Neill missing out.

It’s hard, mate. We’ve got a good squad. It’s hard to make some of those decisions. I just thought Ben can play middle and back row, just give me that little bit more, and we had Chris Hankinson there, who can play anywhere on the field, so probably needed that front row rotation coverage.

In saying that, I’ve only made two changes from 60 minutes into the game. I thought our middles were outstanding. Yes, it was unfortunate for Ethan because he hadn’t been playing so well, but sometimes coaches’ decisions are going to be cruel.