Leeds Rhinos coach Rohan Smith reflects on 'tough 2 years' and 'professional performance' v London Broncos

Rhinos’ biggest win of the season was a boost after four successive home losses and a disappointing performance in their victory at Hull FC five days earlier. It was achieved despite Riley Lumb and Brodie Croft picking up injuries which reduced Rhinos to 15 available players for the final 50 minutes on Friday night and Smith reflected: “It has been a tough two years.

“I arrived here two years ago to the day and there hasn’t been a day or a week when people don’t think you should win. Getting back to back wins is important.

“Playing in the manner we did, I thought we were very respectful of the opposition coming in, we did our prep’ and our homework. We can always play better and improve, but given the disruption I thought it was a very professional performance.”

Having beaten the bottom two in successive matches, Rhinos face a pair of the leading sides in back-to-back games, visiting Catalans Dragons on Saturday and St Helens 13 days later. Smith added. “Now we’ll get on to what’s going to be a really tough trip next week.

“We have seen the closeness of the competition; on any given week the majority of teams aren’t too far away from the other teams. It’s about getting prepared and playing as best you can every week and there’s going to be results there. We will be going there to give it a good crack.”

Though recent results and performances made for a nervous build-up to Friday’s match, Smith stressed: “There was a lot of discipline and intent with the way we attacked and in our defence we got after it and didn’t allow any opportunities. They scored a couple of good tries when they were chancing their arm a bit, but overall we were pretty much as close as you can get to controlling a game.

“We had a lot of disruptions again with losing a couple of backs early on. It has been a tricky week and maybe a tricky couple of weeks for some people in their preparation, with the surrounding vibes, so to come out and play that way, with the disruptions, was pleasing.”

Smith felt his side “got some joy from playing the way we intended to”, but insisted: “A lot of people don’t give London enough credit for how they compete and how they are as a team.

“They work hard, they seem very committed as a group. We had to earn that, as have many teams against them this year. I am really pleased with our players, but there’s some respect should be shown to the opposition.”

Individually, Smith praised Jarrod O’Connor who started at hooker for the first time this season and how Andy Ackers played off the bench. He was also pleased with full-back Lachie Miller and the way players across the team adapted to early changes after Lumb and Croft went off.