Everything Leeds boss Rohan Smith said after debut defeat at Salford

After taking charge of Leeds Rhinos for the first time yesterday, losing 23-8 at Salford Red Devils, here’s everything that Rohan Smith had to say…

Smith on the performance:

“I thought we let ourselves down in some critical moments defensively. Offensively, we just weren’t willing to take our time after we created a little bit of an in-road to play the ball and build some pressure. I didn’t think we built enough.”

Smith on errors:

“I’m not too sure why [they were made]. That’s something about getting to know the players and speaking to them individually as we go forward, seeing how they think with their decision making. It’s too soon for me to know exactly why people made those mistakes.

“I feel there was a lack of trust on a few occasions there. We turned in and didn’t need to which created opportunity for the opposition and there’s one try where there were a few deflections. They happen sometimes but we’ve been working on a few defensive things that are a little different to previous so that’ll continue to be worked on. There was no thought that we were going to play a perfect game today by any means.”

Smith on whether the game was over by half time:

“Not at all. The scoreboard certainly wasn’t in our favour, but it was definitely not out of reach.”

Smith on getting a first game under his belt:

“It’s a different perspective just seeing how people communicate with each other and how they hold their body language, it’s a really important thing for coaches to observe and see how individuals handle those moments. Today was helpful as far as moving forward.”

Smith on his mood throughout:

“I’m a reasonably calm character on the outside but on the inside, I was a little frustrated at times. Our attack wasn’t through lack of