Leeds Rhinos 24, Huddersfield Giants 30: YEP video review

YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith pulls no punches as he reflects on Leeds Rhinos' 30-24 loss to Huddersfield Giants at AMT Headingley.

Transcript

00:00 Well, here at Headingley I'm struggling to believe what I've just seen after Leeds Rhinos

00:07 slumped to a disastrous and utterly bizarre 30 points to 24 defeat by Huddersfield Giants

00:15 having led 12-0 late in the first half and 24-12 in the second.

00:22 Leeds played quite well in the first half, defended pretty well and scored a couple of good tries.

00:29 They had a little nice spell with the ball in the second half when this got back-to-back touchdowns

00:34 but the final 40 minutes was a defensive catastrophe, particularly on Leeds' right side.

00:40 Leeds made it easy for Huddersfield who went the length of the field a number of times.

00:46 It wasn't acceptable, this performance from Leeds, particularly defensively.

00:51 That's four successive home defeats.

00:54 Their record after eight Super League rounds is 1-4, lost four, not good enough for a team.

01:00 With the quality of players Leeds have got in a club as big as this, so some decisions are going to have to be made.

01:07 Who's thought it is? Well, that has to be decided, doesn't it?

01:12 I think today some decisions went against Leeds again.

01:17 Huddersfield's last try I thought should have gone to the video screen.

01:22 It might have been a knock-on which would have given Leeds a last-attacking opportunity close to Huddersfield's line

01:27 but it was given without consulting the video referee and that was a bit strange.

01:31 But Leeds can't blame decisions or referees or match officials or anything other than themselves for today's defeat.

01:39 Just, as I say, a disastrous defeat. They threw it away and pressure is really mounting now on coach Rohan Smith

01:47 ahead of a trip to Hull next week when Hull could very well have a new coach in place.

01:52 They'll have Richard Miley in place as director of rugby and that's got a disaster written all over it from Leeds' point of view.

01:59 Hull are poor. Leeds would be expected to beat them but on the current form it's hard to see where Leeds' next win is going to come from.

02:07 Really poor today, really poor.