Brad Singleton confident Leeds Rhinos will bounce back after defeat to Huddersfield Giants

They were left stunned on Thursday night as their struggling derby rivals, who had not won in nine games and been beaten in the Challenge Cup by part-timers Swinton Lions on Sunday, became the first team to prosper at Headingley since last July.

Leeds, who had won seven of their previous eight games, were level 12-12 at half-time but simply wretched in the second period as Huddersfield powered home.

“We had a chance to go top of the league and we didn’t take it,” said Singleton.

“I just feel like we never had a full grip of the game. We made some simple errors and a few things didn’t go in our favour and we ended up losing the momentum.

“I think we’ve been in good nick and hopefully this is just a blip, because it was a disappointing performance.

“We’ve got a tough game at Catalans next Saturday and we can’t sit around feeling sorry for ourselves.”

After the hectic Easter period, and the forthcoming trip to France, Leeds players have been given time off from training until Tuesday when coach Brian McDermott hopes they will return refreshed ready for Catalans.

Singleton, meanwhile, played his first Super League game since completing a six-match ban for elbowing Catalans’ Greg Bird at Headingley last month.

“Personally I felt good,” said the Cumbrian. “I have missed it. I enjoy playing and being with the lads, but it is disappointing whenever you don’t get the two points.

“It’s frustrating. I am not sure how it looked on television, but it was a very frustrating game. There were some simple errors and some simple penalties we should not be giving away.

“We are going to let it hurt us, but we can’t let it bother us too much and need to get a re-action.”