Leeds Rhinos need to buy pair of half-backs, insists Garry Schofield

The former Leeds and Great Britain stand-off described Rhinos’ performance in their 46-8 drubbing at Wigan Warriors two days ago as “rubbish, rubbish, rubbish”.

Schofield, who was at the game in his role as a radio summariser, pulled no punches in his assessment of Rhinos’ seventh successive Betfred Super League loss.

“There’s no leadership there, no creativity,” Schofield said.

“They look like a team of individuals. It’s a matter of some of them thinking ‘I can’t care less about the team, I’ll just perform as an individual and make sure I don’t get criticised’.

“The team as a whole has no leadership, no shape and no organisation. If the senior players are not leading and not doing the job they’re supposed to be doing, how can you expect the youngsters to play?”

Regarded as one of Leeds’s greatest players, Schofield scored 147 tries in 250 appearances for his home city club in the 1980s and 1990s and was inducted into Rhinos’ Hall of Fame last month.

He began his career as a centre before moving to stand-off and was particularly scathing about Rhinos’ play-makers.

“Richie Myler is not the answer for Leeds,” he claimed. “As a creative player he has not got it and he has only scored two tries this year.

“The half-back partnership between him and Joel Moon is not the answer.

“If Leeds don’t buy a pair of quality half-backs, then I am afraid it is going to be a sad end to the season.

“You can’t put a spin on it, what I saw [at Wigan] was hurtful, absolutely pathetic.”

Rhinos have been dragged into a battle to finish in Super League’s top-eight and a second bottom-four placing in three years would leave them fighting for survival in the Qualifiers.

They visit Castleford Tigers in eight days’ time, then have home games against Wakefield Trinity and Widnes Vikings before completing their regular season away to Salford Red Devils.

“The pressure is on,” Schofield warned.

“Games are running out.

“No matter what form Cas are in they always want to beat Leeds.

“They [Rhinos] won’t get a result there and then it’s Wakefield at home and they will come with plenty of confidence.

“The fixture list might help them, that’s the only thing in their favour, but Wakefield won’t lie down and Salford away is not a given because they will be 
fighting for their position,” he added.

Schofield has become known for his outspoken views as a pundit, but insisted he was only giving an honest assessment of the situation as he sees it.

He added: “As an ex-Leeds captain I can only give my opinion.

“If people disagree they have to stop being one-eyed and look at how Leeds are performing,” he added.

“It is simply not good enough. What I saw [on Thursday night], I get upset seeing performances like that.

“In my day we did get some towellings, but we always tried to do our best.”