Leeds Rhinos: Coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan says Josh Warrington's world title win can be inspiration for St Helens showdown

Warrington became boxing world champion for the second time when he stopped Kiko Martinez in an IBF featherweight title bout at Leeds Arena last Saturday, just hours after Rhinos were knocked out of the Betfred Challenge Cup by Castleford Tigers a couple of miles away at Headingley.

Warrington, a Rhinos fan, came out on top despite two painful injuries and Jones-Buchanan wants to see his players show similar resolve and “fight tooth and nail” to get the win in tonight’s home game.

The 40-16 defeat six days ago was Rhinos’ sixth in seven games this year and, depending on the result of Tigers home clash with Toulouse Olympique tonight - they could go bottom of Betfred Super League with a quarter of the season gone.

“Last week, I reviewed the game and then I watched Josh Warrington win his title back,” Jones-Buchanan said.

“He is the epitome of what Leeds is all about for me: hard working, consistent, loads of preparation, disciplined, humble - it was great to see the city get behind him again and we’ve seen that plenty of times at Headingley.

“That’s what we want, that’s the image - Leeds has always been united in sport.

“He finished that fight with a broken jaw and a fractured hand that’s what it looks like, that’s where you need to be.

“I have seen lots of players over the years finish games at Headingley with broken limbs, torn muscles and fractured bones and come off smiling, happy that they’ve been to war.

“We’ve got to learn how to go to war and come out the other end of it with a smile on our face.”

Leeds have lost their last seven meetings with Saints, who suffered a shock defeat at Toulouse in their most recent league game two weeks ago.

Jones-Buchanan insisted: “This is an opportunity to understand where the benchmark is.

“St Helens are the benchmark, without a doubt.

“They are outstanding and if we are going to compete and start to build our season, we need to get in that fire - myself included.

“I have always enjoyed that - it hurts when you are in there and it’s horrible, but when you come out of the other side a bit more refined for it.

“It’s just having that ability to stick in it and not melt.

“Quite often, being in that fire separates the wheat from the chaff.

“You get all the dross coming off the top.

“Ultimately, long-term, you just need to clean that dross off and get rid of the chaff.

“The rest of it, the wheat, will grow off the back of it.

“It will be tough, it will be difficult - you’re going to be stretched and it will be painful, [but] you’ll come through.”

Improved discipline is the key to Leeds staying in the contest, Jones-Buchanan admits.

Two Rhinos players, Zane Tetevano and Brad Dwyer, will miss the game through suspension and Leeds are averaging one sin-binning per game this season.

“There’s some fundamentals I keep talking about, not least discipline,” Jones-Buchanan warned.

“In today’s game, you can’t play with 12 men.

“It has just not been addressed and it is an issue that has plagued us all season.

“It is not good enough and we can only look internally.”

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