'Need a miracle': Leeds Rhinos Jury slam missed chances in loss v Hull FC, fear a tough night at St Helens

Missed opportunities were blamed for the Betfred Super League round two loss to Hull FC and hopes are not high for Friday’s visit to St Helens.

While Justin Sangare is emerging as a favourite, our panel are less happy with some senior players in the team.

IAIN SHARP

Me testing positive for Covid on the eve of the first home game of the season against Hull FC destroyed the notion that even germs have standards and meant that I had to review the proceedings from my sick bed.

Certainly, the consensus was that Leeds played better than they did against Warrington and the main problem this week seemed to be the calamity passing at vital times as the score see-sawed between the teams.

Of course, you also need to factor in one of the great laws of the universe, where ex-players turn up and score against you.

Leeds are crying out for the return of Mik Oledzki, James Bentley and a fully fit Harry Newman and with those players readily available, I’d suggest we’d be ‘different gravy’. Leeds didn’t start winning until May last year and still made it to the Grand Final, so there is still plenty of time yet.

This week is away to newly crowned world club champions St Helens and is effectively a free hit, with everyone expecting an easy home win, so Leeds can play with the freedom of no pressure on them and stranger things have happened.

BECKY OXLEY

I loved being back in my spot on the East Terrace at Headingley. Hull is always a big game and it was going to be more so with Brad Dwyer and Liam Sutcliffe returning for the first time since their move in the off season.

It was also uncle against nephew, Tony versus Rohan for the first time this season. Tony did a lot for us at Leeds when he was managing and that soft spot for him will always be there, but on Friday night there was only one team I was wanting to win and that was the Rhinos.

It was a game of fairly high speed and the final result, 22-18 to Hull, was a fair representation of the game.

I do believe the Rhinos showed great spirit and were a lot better than last week. There were, though, too many lost chances, too many gaps in defence and dropped balls - sloppy play which if tightened up and worked on can only improve our play and get us our first win.

TOM GOLDSWORTHY

After a narrow loss to Hull FC on Friday night, I can’t help but feel we are in for a tough season following Leeds.

While there was a vast improvement in the performance from the previous Thursday (let’s be honest, it couldn’t be worse), there are still major concerns about our lack of organisation in both attack and defence.

With seconds to go and needing points, seeing the ball go flying into touch just highlights the lack of structure in our team.

We were often our own worst enemy, with consistent handling errors in promising positions making it a disappointing night.

There were too many passengers in the team, with big-name players like Richie Myler, Aidan Sezer, Kruise Leeming and Zane Tetevano not pulling their weight.

This is unfortunately nothing new as we saw something similar at the beginning of last season and Rohan Smith has a big task on his hands getting them to play at their best once again.

Looking at the positives, Justin Sangare came on to have another solid stint in a Leeds shirt. Surely it’s only a matter of time before he gets a spot in the starting 13.

Tom Holroyd had a much better game than last week, and we saw more of his potential as a future star forward for Leeds.

Thinking ahead to the Saints game this week, we will need something of a miracle to get anything from this game.

Leeds need to get back to basics with their efforts in attack and defence but I fear we are in for another tough night across the Pennines.

DAVID MUHL

It was great to be back at headquarters this week, rugby league under the lights on a Friday night is superb even though the result was not what we wanted!

For a second week in a row the night ended in disappointment. This week was a better effort with players showing some heart and coming out in the first half with a bit of fire.

This was a game we lost, rather than Hull winning. We had plenty of opportunities to put the game to bed, but we failed to take them and were responsible for our own downfall, unforced errors again costing us dearly.

Home games like this really are must win games and if we are to finish anywhere near the top six we must get these results in the bag.

Having said all that, the way the rucks were enforced left a lot to be desired, Hull obviously came with the intention of slowing the game down at the play the ball and in the main were very successful and we had no answer to it.

Our half-backs have yet to click; some of the in-play kicking was poor and the sooner they start to gel the better.

Sam Lisone and Justin Sangare continued to show that they will be good additions to the squad and our three-quarter line had a better look to it although Ash Handley is definitely a winger rather than a centre.

With St Helens next we will need a great improvement if we are to avoid an embarrassing big third defeat and a miserable journey back home across the undoubted roadwork-filled M62.

They will have had a further week to recover from their successful trip to Australia and will have several players back that they rested in their win at Castleford.

JOSH JACKSON

There’s no better feeling than a Friday night under the lights at Headingley, but sadly we began there with another loss which sees us sit second from bottom in Super League.

Although in patches of that game it was a much improved performance from our opening game, there is still a lot to be concerned about.

At this level of our sport you can’t afford to waste the opportunities we had after a couple of breaks through the Hull FC line and misplaced passes and dropped balls cost us points on the board.

Yet again our attack looks so disjointed and with the halves not taking control and creating plays, we struggled to break Hull down.

Too many times I felt like we were trying to beat them down the middle and with Hull having one of the biggest packs in the league, I don’t think it was the right decision to do this.

We need more from Aidan Sezer, Blake Austin, Kruise Leeming and Richie Myler in our attack. Justin Sangare once again had a big impact from the bench. A much needed improvement is needed for Saints away on Friday or we could end up seeing another disappointing scoreline.

SAM BROCKSOM

Not taking our chances cost us the game against Hull. We bombed three great scoring opportunities that were basic mistakes we must be getting right. It’s simple errors that are costing us, especially against Hull when the game was hanging in the balance all night.

The spine is where most of our problems are starting from. One, six, seven and nine are not in tandem and we look clueless when we enter the opposition 20.

Aidan Sezer managed to somehow perform worse than last week, only making four metres. Richie Myler is a shadow of his former self, one of our poorest performers this season.

I thought Justin Sangare and Nene Macdonald were our standouts. Again, when the Frenchman came on our pack were better for it. Sam Lisone and Zane Tetevano need to step up as they are stealing a wage at the minute.

Looking ahead to Saints, it’s hard to see anything but another loss. The World Club champions haven’t missed a beat in their return to Super League after their win against Castleford.