Jamie Jones-Buchanan believes Leeds Rhinos put the framework in place to build upon during their 28-0 defeat to St Helens. The interim head coach said that there were enough signs within the performance to suggest a change in attitude and behaviours that would allow his struggling side to build.
The Rhinos, who have now won one of their opening eight games this season, were kept scoreless by the champions as their attack faltered throughout. Despite that, he was pleased with some of the improvements he saw ahead of a full week with his squad without a game.
He said: "From being four years old I've been involved in this sport and I never understood coaches or teachers who spoke about performance, it was always about the win for me.
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"But this week I got it, I was desperate for a performance, certainly a response. In recent weeks some of the lads have looked dejected or spiritually dead and you've just wondered where the performances are going to come from.
"Whilst I'll preface this by saying 26-0 is never, ever going to be good enough for Leeds Rhinos at home, I just think some of the building blocks we wanted to put in place tonight for the next two weeks and to build a season were there. Add to the fact that, I know Saints were missing some high-quality world class players, you had Fusitu'a, Harry Newman, Richie Myler, Tetevano, Tommy Holroyd, some pretty offensive players, you're going to start executing some more players and scoring some tries and things look different."
He continued: "We've not scored anywhere near enough points. We moved the ball and asked some questions, I just thought when we got to the three quarters we didn't have enough punch, zip or speed. We turned the ball over on first or second tackle four or five times which is really disappointing and just overplaying. But they will get there, they're part of the incremental steps a few weeks down the line.
"What I've seen tonight, some of the conversations I've seen going on, I'm convinced we will make some strides. I'm going in before and at half-time and they're going on and having conversations and that's enough for me from where we've been. They're asking questions of each other in the right way and asking the right questions. It's not just fluff, they're not speaking for the sake of speaking, they're asking good questions and holding each other to account."
Aidan Sezer was a notable absentee while Mikolaj Oledzki and James Bentley sustained injuries, though Jones-Buchanan insisted none were serious and praised two of his players for going through the pain barrier.
"He's been struggling for a little while and he pulled up yesterday," Jones-Buchanan said of Sezer. "He wasn't right and there was no point going out there and risking it and getting upset and angry.
"He (Oledzki) played hurt and that's important. To be able to get up off the deck and play hurt is important and what I need from characters. Young Jack Walker was struggling but he stayed out there and that's commitment, we don't want people crying off and whinging when they get a bit of a knock. Once they start believing they can play with a small tear or hairline fracture, that's when you can win games. There are people in my earhole saying he needs to come off and look after him and think about two or three weeks down the line, there might not be two or three weeks' time. We've got a few knocks but some smart medical people.
"He (Bentley) passed it (the HIA), he had a bad neck. He'll be fine tomorrow because he's hard as nails. He had a bad neck and it was the backend of the game and it had gone by then, I wanted to get Muizz Mustapha on and give Jarrod some game time and it was good to be able to do that."
