Leeds look to tighten up against St Helens
They say attack is the best form of defence, and Leeds Rhinos centre Joel Moon is under no illusions that his side need to improve with the ball in hand this weekend against St Helens. Brian McDermott’s side were beaten 23-12 by league leaders Castleford Tigers last time out, with the head coach’s pre-match taunts backfiring spectacularly as the league leaders beat them for a seventh straight meeting.
Leeds restricted Castleford’s free-flowing attack to just three tries, but could only manage two themselves as the error count racked up, and with Saints in town this week Moon knows exactly where the Rhinos must tighten up. “Obviously we were all a bit disappointed after our loss against Castleford, but it’s a long season and the boys are ready to go again this weekend,” said the former Brisbane Broncos and New Zealand Warriors man. “Our completion wasn’t good enough last week. I don’t think you’re going to beat any team if you’re dropping that much ball-but our defence was very good indeed.
“So we’ve just been working on a few things in training this week in terms of our own possession of the ball and then we’ll be alright. “You always want to bounce straight back after a tough loss, but it will be hard again this weekend against Saints as they will come here ready to go. “All round the field they are strong. They have some big forwards in Alex Walmsley and Kyle Amor up front, and then they’ve got some great backs with Theo Fages and Matty Smith in the halves with some good outside backs around them.
“So it’s an all-round game and we’ve just got to worry about what we do. We’re in good shape with a few good wins and performances-but it’s a long year and it’s good we have things to work on.”
The League Leaders’ Shield looks destined for Castleford, as they sit seven points clear of Hull FC-but their chasers have the chance to close the gap on Friday. And boss Lee Radford is expecting the Tigers to show off their best rugby in search of revenge, after Hull dumped them out of the Challenge Cup earlier this month. “It’s another instance of learning lessons from last year,” he said. “After the Challenge Cup final we played Warrington for the League Leaders’ Shield at home.
“We got out-enthused that night and there was just a little bit of revenge in that performance from Warrington. “I’ve got no doubt that will be exactly the same from Castleford this week. If we are not bang at it then we can expect a real response from these blokes.” Elsewhere, Warrington’s hopes of reaching the Super 8s still hang in the balance and they face Wakefield Trinity away from home this weekend. But Wire boss Tony Smith remains confident after ending a run of six games without a victory by beating Catalan Dragons 24-16 last weekend. He said: “By the end of the rounds, we’ll be where we deserve to be. There will be more twists and turns yet. There will be shocks and upsets here and there.
“All we can do is focus on who we’re playing, this week we did that pretty well.” —AFP