Agar: ‘We were painful to watch’

BY JOHN DAVIDSON

Leeds coach Richard Agar has admitted his side were “painful to watch” in their dismal 10-4 defeat to Catalans.

The Rhinos remained winless this season after Thursday’s six-point loss to the Dragons.

Agar felt his side’s execution let them down, as well as their decisions in attack.

“We sat back too much, didn’t create too much push and support and at times with the ball it was painful to watch, really painful to watch, that’s something we’ve to work hard on,” he said. 

“We’ve some combinations to work on, we’ve two new halfbacks in there, a new fullback, he’s not new but not played for two years now and Richie has been such a pivotal player for us in our good ball attack that we need to make some adaptations there. 

“But yeah, get back to playing with more speed and push and support.

“It was a real stop-start affair, the game never really got any tempo. We said to our guys at halftime the first team that goes after this game and tries to get some tempo will bring it home but I never think it got that from start to finish. 

“We bombed a lot of chances. I simply felt, especially when they were down to 12 men, we had a penchant for hitting lead runners nine times out of ten. 

“I think if we go out of the back early and a bit of execution on the edge, I think we’ll look back on the tape and see a lot of chances and space we didn’t execute.”

Leeds have lost to Warrington, Wigan and Catalans in the opening three rounds.

Agar was pleased with his players’ effort, but it was not enough on a cold night at Headingley and he felt the Dragons deserved their win.

“After last week our effort was up there, they were committed, the kick chase was good, they got numbers in the tackle and controlled it well, but our ability to execute tonight was so far off the mark,” he said. 

“We didn’t through poor execution, bits of skill being off and poor decision from the football.”

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