00:00Oliver, not quite, what were your thoughts on the game?
00:04Well, I just thought we were pretty poor first half.
00:09I thought Leeds obviously came with a fair bit of intent about them
00:12and I just don't think we matched that, to be honest.
00:16I conceded a pretty sloppy try on the back of defending backwards, to be honest.
00:23I just thought it was too quick, the game, for us, for any team really,
00:27to defend at that intensity is tough.
00:30Yeah, and then we get into a good attacking position and we put the ball down,
00:36I just felt that was the story really.
00:38Caius puts the ball down on halfway and they, I just think you can't,
00:43when they're playing hot Leeds, they're pretty hot and they're playing a touching pass almost.
00:49So that was the first half, the second half I just, I didn't think he was like us,
00:54I said to the boys at half-time, I don't think this is like the team that I know we are.
01:00And I thought we did some real simple things in the second half that got us a bit of ascendancy
01:06and I thought we were by far the better team in the second half, but we couldn't quite at the end there get over the line.
01:15We had a couple of opportunities and we were a little bit scratchy and couldn't quite execute.
01:21I mean, the team's doing a great job at the minute, I reckon if True is out there, it's a different outcome, but it is not and that's the way it is.
01:31You know, we, the boys have been class, I just think the second half showed what we're about and, you know, we're not going away,
01:39I think you can see that, so we've got some real tough games coming up and I think we'll learn quite a lot from the game, to be honest.
01:46So, we're looking forward to, you know, a bit of a breather for the boys this week and then, and then we crack on,
01:52we've got a real tough block of games this week, you know, Lee, this month, sorry, we've got Lee, OKR, Wigan, so, it's a tough con.
02:02I was going to ask you about the absentees because, you know, you're working with a lengthy injury list,
02:07is this the first game that you've really seen that, you know, the injury list has impacted performance, would you say?
02:15I don't know, because the second half, you know, if we play like we did in the second half, first half, you know, who knows,
02:22games and games, you know, they all flow differently, but, yeah, it's, I don't know, at some point, you know,
02:29you're going, you know, we aren't really deep at the moment, you know, I'm picking from the same block of players
02:36and it's putting stress on quite a few boys, but, you know, like I say, we get a week off this week,
02:42so we'll freshen up a bit, but we've got a few, you know, three-monthers, you know,
02:46we've been pretty unlucky with some of them, so that's pretty tough, but, you know, I think we're in a great place,
02:53you know, we're super competitive every week and that could have easily gone.
02:58I think pretty much all the games apart from the Saints games could have gone either way, so, you know,
03:03we know we need to improve to win games like that and, you know, I'm confident for real.
03:09Your edge defence, sorry, your edge attack, which has troubled so many teams this season,
03:14didn't quite get to work today, is that more about the Rhino's defensive effort?
03:20Yeah, a little bit of both. I thought we were a little bit clunky, to be honest, you know, I don't think we...
03:26Well, they're the best team on the line, you know, they do some things with single marker on the tri-line
03:31and they, you know, they're pretty good at keeping teams out. And I think we're, you know, obviously, our combinations are a little bit different.
03:44You know, Rocky's been class, some of the things that he does, Max is, he's not quite as good at.
03:50And then, Max is a little bit quicker than him and executes a little bit sharper, maybe out the back.
03:55But, but it's what it is, we've got what we've got. The boys are doing a class job. Everybody's going to have injuries.
04:00And, you know, I think, like I say, Rocky's been class, so I'm not having a pop at anybody.
04:08I just think, you know, we're going to get better, we're just going to get better through the season.
04:13And we're on a great path at the moment, win or lose today. I thought Leeds were clinging on at the end, to be honest.
04:20And, you know, they'll feel like they've been in the game, which they should have.
04:24Is that how you felt at the end, were you feeling disappointed that you didn't come away with a win?
04:28Yeah, I thought we could have, you know, we could have easily won that game.
04:31But we needed one more score, Max is a goal pickings class.
04:35You know, at the end of the day, it's two penalties beside the game, you know.
04:38And that's, that's the way it is sometimes.
04:41First half cost you then, in summary, not quite on point by, by your standards.
04:46Some errors, some decisions maybe that didn't go your way.
04:49And some injuries created some disruption.
04:53Yeah, alright. Yeah, I just thought, I just thought first half sort of decided the game really, didn't it?
04:58Because we couldn't reel it back in.
05:00And a little bit of discipline, we conceded a couple of, a couple of penalties which, which get them points.
05:06And ultimately that's the, that's the difference.
05:10Well, I'm pretty proud of the courage that we showed.
05:13I thought that's, you know, if you look at a rugby league team and some of the things that are important to a rugby league team,
05:18then I think we've got pretty much all of them in place.
05:22So, yeah, obviously tough to take, but, you know, we can't play like that in half of football against the better teams and expect to win.
05:30I think, you know, that's, that's something that we'll learn from today.
05:35How's Seth Darrell? He came off in that first half, didn't he?
05:38Yeah, he got an head knock, but then he was alright to go back on.
05:40I just, I never felt he was at his best after, after he went back on.
05:44So, and Cam's, Cam's an option there. So, yeah, but he's fine.
05:50You've won here once already this season and you've run them incredibly close another time, I think.
05:54It's a measure of how far you've come in a short space of time, isn't it?
05:57You can come to places like this and not only trouble teams, but get results.
06:01Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, the second half in particular, I just felt like we just went toe-to-toe with their middle unit
06:11and I thought we came out on top, you know.
06:13But yeah, I think we're growing all the time and I think it's kind of been a sort of a coaching job
06:22to get the boys to believe how good they can be.
06:25But I think, you know, every passing week, they start to grow a little bit more confidence.
06:32And yeah, today was another tick in some boxes whilst, you know, we know we need to do better in areas then.
06:40I thought it was great what we did in the second half.
06:43I just thought, I asked the boys then, did it surprise them really, the heat, the intensity?
06:50Because there's a lot of motion out there today, you know, for all sorts of different reasons.
06:54And we discussed it. I just don't think we handled it.
06:57You know, sometimes you get out there, it's like, we've got quite a lot of players who are dropping into new situations all the time.
07:03People like Seth, for example, Caius, you know. They're playing in a fair bit of heat there, you know, in a real hostile environment.
07:10And the lessons are there that will make them better players, which then makes us a better team.
07:15As you say, he's stretched at the minute. Is it too early to see if you can get anyone back for league in a fortnight?
07:20Oh, yeah, I'm not 100% sure. I mean, Diley's not too far away. You know, I'm not sure about Tully yet where he'll be at.
07:31You know, we've got a couple of weeks, so we'll wait and see. But we're not getting, you know, people like Renufa Toney, Caleb Ouelli, Kai Rodwell, Matty Staughton.
07:42You know, if we're not getting them boys back any time soon. So, yeah, we've got a decent list when you look at that, you know.
07:52And, you know, Olly Russell, two halves and five or six forwards. But boys doing class, you know, I always think that's a...
07:59Well, I think we've ended up having a better squad than we thought at the start because players have got opportunities.
08:07So Josh Rock's got a lot of opportunity. Harvey Smith's played more games than he potentially would have done because Diley's been injured.
08:14You know, I just think that that's been kind of the positive out of the difficulty, really, which, you know, I just think we're in a great place.
08:25I think the squad's ended up being deeper. We're competing against pretty much everybody, you know, we're challenging teams.
08:31So, you know, we've got to be happy with where we're at, but also disappointment because I know how good we can be.
