Leeds Rhinos 0 Wigan Warriors 50: YEP review

YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith reflects on Leeds Rhinos' embarrassing 50-0 home loss to Wigan Warriors.

Transcript

00:00 Well, there are good days, there are bad days and then there are days like this one when

00:05 Leeds have been beaten 50 points to nil at home by Wigan Warriors in what was really

00:12 an abject humiliation. The gulf in class between the two sides was quite startling. Clubs like

00:18 Leeds Rhinos shouldn't be losing 50-0 to anybody and particularly not at Headingley. You could

00:25 point out the fact that Leeds were missing quite a number of players through injury.

00:31 They don't have a spine at the moment. The 1, 6, 7 and 9 from the start of the season

00:37 weren't playing. They had a 19-year-old second rower at stand-off, an 18-year-old rookie

00:44 has come half but it's still no excuse. They should be better than that. 15 points to nil,

00:49 as I say, totally unacceptable. There were some boos at the end of the game and chants

00:56 from 'you're not fit to wear the shirt' from a section of fans. I think that's a little

00:59 bit harsh on the team who have certainly tried very hard this season and have been very competitive

01:06 all the way through but today the dam broke and the gulf in class between Wigan and Leeds

01:13 was quite worrying. The fact is Leeds aren't going to qualify for the top six now. They

01:19 were grand finalists last year. They've declined quite significantly since then. There's a

01:24 huge amount of work to be done before next season if Leeds are to be competitive again.

01:31 This is a club that craves success. It's a team that needs to be reaching semi-finals

01:35 and finals and they're quite a long way short of that at the moment. There will be big changes

01:42 to the squad over the off-season but certainly the two signings that have been made, Matt

01:48 Froley and Lackey Miller, seem like good signings along with Mikel Gudemond from Catalan's

01:53 Dragons but more needs to be done. This sort of thing just can't continue. Heddingley should

02:01 be a fortress. Nobody should be coming here and winning 50-0. Leeds have got a lot of

02:06 soul-searching to do. In the immediate future they've got a trip to Catalan Dragons next

02:10 week. That's going to be incredibly tough as well but at the very minimum they need

02:14 a 100% improvement in performance.

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