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