Agar can see leaders Leeds are making progress

Leeds spent last season locked in a four-way relegation battle before securing safety with two games remaining.

Their revival over the second half of the year earned Agar, who had been interim-coach, the job on a full-time basis and Rhinos go into this weekend’s round eight top of the Super League table.

Champions St Helens will provide a stern test tomorrow and Agar believes it will be an indication of how far Leeds have come and what still needs to be done.

“We hold Saints as the benchmark,” said Agar. “At the moment we are aspiring to be them, taking into account where we have come from and having had three difficult years over the past four.

“We think we are building and over the last 12 months we have definitely made strides.

“The league table doesn’t mean too much to us at this point, but we feel we are in an alright spot as a club in terms of our progress.”

Rhinos were officially the away side against Huddersfield last Sunday, when they hit back from 26-6 down to win by a point in extra-time, but will be back in their home changing rooms and first-choice kit tomorrow.

Even so, Agar accepts some of the “advantage” of playing on their own turf has been lost with the only fans being cardboard cut-outs.

“It was a strange atmosphere,” he admitted of last week. “Players do feed off the energy a crowd brings and, in my experience as Leeds coach, it has been a good energy.

“It is different and we do feel playing at home is an advantage for us and we have lost a little bit of that by not having our crowd there.

“But having said that, the players get on with it; they are very professional and I think our players have got used to playing at neutral venues.

“It is good changing rooms here and a beautiful pitch – and the cardboard cut-outs didn’t boo me once, so I was over the moon with that.”

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