Catalans Dragons v Leeds Rhinos: '˜Rubbish' Rhinos can still earn top-four finish, insists Hall

Rhinos face Catalans Dragons in Perpignan today on the back of a 38-10 loss to Castleford Tigers.

They have slipped to sixth in the table after winning only three of their last nine Betfred Super League matches.

And Hall admitted beginning round 16 only three points outside the top-four was a bonus after the way they have been playing. He said: “We are not a million miles off, to say how bad we’ve been. We have been bad. We’ve been losing games by a point, which says we’ve been close, but I think we were rubbish in those games as well, some of them.

“We could have scraped wins in previous years, but we haven’t this year. We haven’t been good in a while and we are still in touching distance of fourth.

“We are a couple of wins behind, but we are still capable of getting there by round 30.”

One good win could turn the season around, Hall – who is out of contract at the end of the year – reckons.

He predicted: “Once it all clicks, there might be a bit of a realisation that that’s how it feels to get a decent performance under our belt. Just that one performance could be the start of a journey we need to go on. We keep talking about it, but we haven’t done it yet.

“We keep saying ‘hopefully it’ll happen soon’ – well, hopefully it will happen this week. We will take hope out of the equation, we’ve worked hard in training and that’s how everything starts.”

Catalans climbed off the foot of the table after beating Salford Red Devils last weekend.

“They struggled at the start of the year,” Hall said. “They got a good win against Salford and one win can change the morale of a team.

“We are suffering a bit at the moment, we haven’t had a good win in the league for quite a while, so going there is going to be really challenging. Hopefully we can dig in ourselves.”

Rhinos flew to France yesterday and will return straight after the game.

Hall described the travel as “a hurdle you’ve got to jump over” and he said: “It’s down to the staff to manage it correctly and, touch wood, we’ve been okay in recent years.

“I didn’t get to play there last year because I was with England, but I’m back to it this week and I’m sure the people who make those decisions will have done the right thing.”

Dragons’ star man last week was Leeds-born winger Jodie Broughton who scored his second successive hat-trick.

“I played a bit of juniors with him,” said Hall of the former Rhinos academy player.

“He was playing the majority of his rugby in the 18s and I was in the 21s so actual on-field time was limited.

“But I know him quite well, he is a great kid and he looks at life the right way, he looks on the happy side of life. I suppose living in Catalan, where it’s nice and sunny and now he’s playing well, that’s the way to do it.”