It’s tough but our fortunes will change – Leeds Rhinos captain Ferres

The 18-16 home defeat to promoted London Broncos was Rhinos’ sixth loss in seven Super League games and only a better points difference than Huddersfield Giants is keeping them off the foot of the table.

Leeds seemed to be getting back on track when they turned an 8-0 half-time deficit into a 16-8 lead, but London scored two tries in the final six minutes to leave Rhinos facing a relegation battle with almost a quarter of their fixtures completed.

Ferres captained the side in place of injured centre Kallum Watkins and admitted Rhinos have to be better, but insisted they are not far from going on a run of success.

“We have got a great club and a great coaching staff and I am sure results will come,” said the former Wakefield, Castleford and Huddersfield forward.

“We are by no way a million miles away, we’ve just got to fix a few little areas up, but they are critical areas for us at the moment.”

He added “I’ve been in this situation before at various clubs and it is really tough.

“Your backs are against the wall and everyone’s against you.

“The fans want results and we are in the same situation, we want to turn it around.

“It is certainly disappointing, but we get paid to do a job and we have to knuckle down and keep working hard and fix those little areas up.”

Ferres reckons Leeds’ purple patch in the second half, when they ran in three tries, gave them something to build on, but stressed they need to perform for the full game.

He noted: “We have played well in patches against very good teams. We have been doing it, it has been there, but we can’t knock a full 80-minute performance off.

“We have clocked off in a few areas and that’s what has burned us. We played all right [on Friday] for 75 minutes and probably did enough to win that game, but you clock off for five minutes at the end and a team gets you.”