The incredible numbers behind Leeds Rhinos' awful…

The incredible numbers behind Leeds Rhinos' awful disciplinary record in 2022

Of all the problems which have plagued Leeds Rhinos' season, discipline is perhaps the biggest of all. That issue was again brought into the spotlight after the Magic Weekend, with Matt Prior becoming the latest Leeds player to pick up a costly suspension.

Prior is one of several Leeds players who have already been suspended on multiple occasions this year. The likes of James Bentley, Zane Tetevano and Brad Dwyer have also been banned by the Rugby Football League's disciplinary panel on more than one occasion, and this week, it leaves Rohan Smith with a headache or two.

Smith will be without five first-team squad members due to suspension for the trip to Toulouse this weekend. Newman, Muizz Mustapha, Tom Holroyd, Tetevano and Prior are all banned for the game against Sylvain Houles' side, with Bodene Thompson returning from his own two-match ban suffered against St Helens last month. Leeds are, however, pondering to appeal the extra game ban given to Newman for a frivolous appeal last week.

But the overall stats make for fairly grim reading for Rhinos supporters. In total, 11 first-team players have received suspensions this year, with four of them, as mentioned, being banned on more than one occasion. The three worst offenders are, perhaps unsurprisingly, Bentley, Tetevano and Prior, who have each received three separate bans already despite the season only being in July.

And those 11 players have received bans totalling an incredible 48 matches, a figure which has undeniably been made worse by players such as Tom Holroyd, who was landed with a ten-match suspension for a punching incident while playing on dual-registration with Bradford Bulls. Similarly, Muizz Mustapha was banned for five games for an incident during a reserves fixture with Warrington Wolves in May.

The defeat to St Helens was arguably the night which summed Leeds' problems up best, with three players - Thompson, Newman and Tetevano - getting bans totalling nine games, from incidents which happened within 15 minutes of one another.

The good news is that since then, Leeds have begun to piece some form together and as of this time of writing, their play-off push is well and truly alive. But if they can snap their indiscipline as the final months of the season approach, they stand to give themselves an even better chance of making the top six.

Leeds Rhinos players suspended in 2022

Tom Holroyd - 10 matches

Zane Tetevano - 9 matches (three separate bans)

James Bentley - 8 matches (three separate bans)

Muizz Mustapha - 5 matches

Matt Prior - 5 matches (three separate bans)

Harry Newman - 3 matches

Morgan Gannon - 2 matches

Bodene Thompson - 2 matches

Brad Dwyer - 2 matches (two separate bans)

Kruise Leeming - 1 match

Cameron Smith - 1 match