Rohan Smith praises 'spirited' and under-strength Leeds Rhinos despite defeat to Catalan Dragons

A Rhinos team missing star players Brodie Croft and Harry Newman plus a host of other first-team regulars fell to tries from Tom Davies, Tom Johnstone, Arthur Mourgue and Alrix Da Costa.

He said: “I thought it was a really spirited performance, we played really professionally against an experienced team on their home patch in their own conditions. There’s been a bunch of games recently in Super League where the score doesn’t reflect the game and, while the better team won today for sure, we weren’t that far away.

“There’s a lot we can take out of that in the way we stuck at it, but it’s hard to take when you let yourselves down in some areas.”

Leeds held firm in the opening stages, but could not prevent Davies opening the scoring following good work by Jayden Nikorima and Mourgue.

Mourgue, who finished with a personal haul of 10 points, then added a penalty to leave Catalans 8-0 up at half-time.

The Rhinos were still in the fight at that point, but a 90-metre breakaway try from Johnstone put further daylight between the two before Mourgue and Da Costa added late scores.

Smith added: “We didn’t apply enough pressure on the opposition. The length-of-the-field try (by Johnstone) was the key moment, but most of our errors we found a way to get the ball back. We finished the game with spirit and energy given the situation we are in so it’s difficult to complain.”