Short-term thinking required by Leeds Rhinos - Adam Cuthbertson

Last season’s treble-winners saw their current campaign hit a new low when they suffered a biggest-ever home defeat to Castleford Tigers on Thursday, crashing 52-12.

It means they remain bottom of the table and time is running out for them to revive an awful season so far.

Some would argue their hopes of even reaching the top eight have already disappeared on the back of 11 defeats from just 14 fixtures.

“Mathematically we probably still can get into the eight, but that’s something we can’t look at,” said Cuthbertson, who was nominated for Man of Steel last term after a dream start in Super League.

“We have just got to have a real good look at each other, step up and really work hard on our own game.

“You can’t look too far into the future, that’s where you can go wrong.

“Sometimes you can slip up thinking about where we could finish.

“We have just got to worry about week and go from week to week now.”

In that sense, the next week sees the challenge of Wigan Warriors at Magic Weekend in Newcastle, hardly a prospect to savour for a squad that is seemingly on its knees.

On the subject of what can improve their invidious position, the former Newcastle Knights forward insisted: “It is just hard work.

“It is hard to find morale at a time like this, because of the circumstances.

“But it is just turning up at training, wanting to be in each other’s presence and company and just really enjoying it and doing the tough work out on the training field.”