McCormack debut is bright spot on worrying night

COACH Rohan Smith has revealed what he thinks went wrong in Leeds Rhinos’ 34-8 home thrashing by Warrington Wolves, commented on a controversial ‘no try’ decision and praised debutant Ned McCormack.

Rhinos let slip an early 4-0 lead as they slumped to a third successive home defeat and fourth from their last five games overall.

They trailed 16-4 at the break, cut the gap at the start of the second period and had a touchdown ruled out before Warrington slammed home their advantage with three converted tries in the final 14 minutes. Smith’s side have defended their goalline well for most of this season, but asked why that wasn’t the case this time, he said: “We had a couple of lapses there.

“When you put yourself in that position on the field, against highquality players, George Williams and Matt Dufty are as dangerous as any players in the competition on their day, when they get the opportunities. We have managed to defend our goalline pretty well over the course of the season, but tonight we had too many lapses. A lot of that was on the back of the pressure we created on ourselves by not finishing enough sets and not ending up in position on the field.”

Rhinos’ players seemed to get frustrated and Smith admitted: “You’d imagine every game when you feel it slipping away you are frustrated and disappointed and agitated and lots of different emotions. We probably tried a bit too hard there at times in the end.

“We were chasing the game, but the game was gone which made the scoreline blow out a fraction more than it probably deserved. But in the end, we were second-best.”

Leeds looked to have scored a third touchdown when Paul Momirovski stretched over from a kick by Rhyse Martin. Referee Aaron Moore thought it was a try, but after studying numerous replays - video assistant Tom Grant decided there was clear evidence of a double-movement.

Asked about that in his postmatch press conference, Smith said: “I tend not to spend too much time watching replays of anything because you can’t change it. It is a roll of the dice.

“I’d only say, you have that many replays - it went for a long period of time so I am assuming there was a lot of replays looked at - and it goes up ‘try’ and comes down ‘no try’...I thought it was an extremely tough call.”

It was a game to forget for Rhinos as a whole, but one 19-year-old three-quarter Ned McCormack, inset, will remember after he came off the bench at the start of the final quarter for his Betfred Super League debut. Smith said: “It was a tough gig for him to get out there at that time. I felt like if we’d had a bit of position or possession he might have opened them up with his footwork. He’s a great story, that kid; 12 months or so ago he was playing for England under-18s rugby [union] and he has really accelerated well.

“Woodhouse Grove [school] have done a great job with his development as a person and a player. He was in our academy system last year and really progressed. He is one for the future, but it was nice to get him a taste there.”