Leeds Rhinos v Catalans Dragons – Good start crucial as Rhinos strive to reach safety point

Rhinos will go into the visit of Catalans Dragons on a high after last week’s 44-0 demolition of relegation rivals Huddersfield Giants.

That lifted them to a season’s best eighth in the table, two points clear of bottom club London Broncos.

But they are among four teams on 18 points and it will only take one poor performance, or a surprise win for any of the teams around them, to pile the pressure back on the eight-time champions.

Leeds have been in this situation before. Last month back-to-back wins over Catalans and Castleford Tigers seemed to have turned their fortunes around, but the opportunity to put clear daylight between them and their rivals was wasted when they slumped at home to Hull KR.

With five games left, two or three successive wins – or defeats – will prove decisive, but Leeds’ interim-coach Richard Agar believes the best option is to look no further than the next match.

“The danger is to look at the league table,” warned Agar. “We have just got to go a game at a time and we just want to keep improving each week.”

Though Leeds have been in the bottom four all year, Agar insists morale in the camp is good and the possibility of relegation is not something the squad are fixating on.

“They are still all massively important games and we need the points, but I don’t think we are a desperate team,” he added. “We are very focused on doing the parts of the game right every week that will put you in the contest. We would like to be better, but we’ve been working towards that for a while now.”

Last week was Rhinos’ most complete performance of the season, their strong defensive effort shutting Giants out while they scored eight tries on attack.

However, Agar insisted there are areas in which they need to improve.

“Energy is going to be a big one so we have got to make sure we have the right levels of that and I would still like us to start the game a bit better,” he added.

“Our first kick last week was poor, we handed the ball over on the halfway line and defensively we were really patchy in the first 15, although our try-line defence was good.”

Catalans have won three of their four fixtures since the 
31-12 loss at Leeds on June 30 and comprehensively out-played second-placed Warrington Wolves six days ago. Though they are without banned duo Sam Tomkins and Michael McIlorum, the French side were handed a lift when three players expected to be suspended for this evening’s game, Kenny Edwards, Mickael Simon and Brayden Wiliame, were cleared to play at a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday.

Leeds’ livewire hooker Brad Dwyer feels Catalans put up a better showing in their previous visit to Headingley than the scoreline suggests and is wary of the threat they will pose this evening.

“The last time we played them it was one of the better performances they’ve put in over the last month or so,” said Dwyer.

“They can be a bit hit and miss with their form, but they have got good players and they’ve had a couple of good results.

“We will be preparing for the best Catalans, but – same as always – we have got a lot of focus on what we are going to deliver and we’re not too focusing too much on the opposition.”

Dwyer believes if Leeds can defend the way they did against Huddersfield they will be a match for most teams.

They have kept a clean sheet in two of Agar’s 11 games in charge, which is in sharp contrast to earlier in the year when they were notoriously easy to score against.

“The defence last week was really pleasing, because that’s an attitude thing,” stressed Dwyer, who was used as an impact player off the bench at Huddersfield.

“You can’t get into a rhythm or have certain players who do that for you, you have to get your attitude right and that’s what we are doing at the moment.

“That is good and we scored a couple of tries through our defence.”

But Leeds have conceded early points in each of their past two home games and Dwyer admitted they need to be quicker out of the blocks against a Catalans side in need of a win to cement their top-five spot.

He insisted: “The big thing for us is our starts.

“If we start well it puts us in a good spot.

“The start wasn’t too bad last week, but we’ve still got some improvements in us and that’s what we’ll be looking to do this week.

“Hopefully, we can get a bit of a roll on here at Headingley because the fans have been great all year.

“They keep turning up and watching us and we want to show them we have progressed quite a bit.”