Rhinos are determined to end their slow starts
Liana Leota has spent the week trying to find an answer to the slow starts that have dogged the opening of Leeds Rhinos’ 2024 Super League season.
In each of their three defeats so far, Leeds have found themselves trailing at the end of the first quarter, the fact they threw the very first pass of the season into the arms of an opposition player on opening weekend, casting a spell they have yet to break free from.
Ahead of today’s home game with the other winless team in the league, Strathclyde Sirens at the University of Huddersfield, director of netball Leota has been trying to find out why.
“It’s a hard one, as a team we’ve been talking about the slow starts,” she said.
“What’s causing it? It’s not fitness, we’ve put them through the wringer and they’re coming out third and fourth quarter.
“We need to get into it a lot earlier, we talked about our warm-up, maybe it needs to be more intense, more game-like, so that when we hit that first quarter we’re ready to go.
“We’ve got a few tweaks for this week but it’s definitely addressing that slow start.”
They have certainly shown fight, not least last week when they stormed back against Cardiff Dragons in Sheffield only to come up short at the end.
“That’s what I continue to take heart from, especially from round one the growth has been phenomenal,” said Leota.
“I can’t actually ask any more. Now it’s about tactics, critical moments, recognising momentum swings.”
On playing Strathclyde, she added: “We had a really good game against them in pre-season so that gives us confidence, but they’re going to be wounded, they’re going to come out fighting, they’ve got nothing to lose.”