Rohan Smith admitted the loss of captain Kruise Leeming hurt Leeds Rhinos following their loss to Huddersfield Giants. Illness prevented Leeming from featuring in the game against his former club, just a week on from his excellent display in victory over Warrington Wolves.
The Rhinos had hoped Leeming would recover but Smith revealed a decision was made in the hours building up to the game, which resulted in some difficulties.
"Kruise has been ill for a few days," Smith said. "He tried to get moving but he was actually a bit worse than yesterday. He wanted to play but we couldn't allow him to play in the state he was in, so he was pulled out earlier today."
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Jarrod O'Connor took his place, with Smith praising the youngster for his efforts in a different position to the one he has often been used in during the season.
"It was a big step for Jarrod but he did a solid job for us. He's a tough kid and competes hard, I thought he did well there at the start."
On the game itself, Smith believed his side's execution at both ends of the pitch let them down.
"I thought we had a few moments at the end of the line that gave them opportunities to get some points on the board. I thought we looked particularly threatening with the ball, despite what the score was.
"I thought they went forward too easily but then the three tries in the first half, or three of the tries, are just poor reads on the end of the line. It comes from trust, when the opposition put their shift plays on it's a group activity to shut those plays down but we didn't.
"They've got good ball carriers and an outstanding dummy half, so they're always going to have decent plays around the ruck, we needed to be a little better around the ruck but they didn't go through our middle in the end."
He continued: "We needed to build a bit of pressure in that first half, we created opportunities but we either didn't kick finish or finish our set or get in the grind. We got more of that second half with more end-to-end and we looked the better team in most of those periods."
