New Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur using lack of knowledge as advantage ahead of Super League bow

Arthur served as an assistant at Melbourne, Parramatta and Manly Sea Eagles before landing his first head coach role with the Eels in 2014, a position he held until May of this year.

It is little wonder, then, that the 50-year-old's knowledge of Super League is limited.

Arthur could be forgiven for fretting about what he is walking into but it has given him a narrow focus as he sets about improving the Rhinos' play-off chances.

"I'm seeing it as an advantage because I don't need to worry about fixing or improving the other teams," said Arthur ahead of his first game in charge against Hull KR today. "I’ve got to worry about my own team.

"What it's forcing me to do is really focus on what our game looks like and when we pull on a Leeds Rhinos jersey, what style of footy we play. By the end of the 10 weeks, I want that to be real distinct to everyone that watches us.

"We shouldn't be identified or determined by our colours – it should be the style of footy we play.

"It's a real 'us' mentality. If we can play better footy with the quality players we have, teams will have to worry about trying to beat us instead of us worrying about beating ourselves."

Leeds' propensity for hurting themselves was evident in the 30-18 defeat at Warrington Wolves on the day that Arthur arrived in England.

The Rhinos made a nightmare start and were duly punished by the high-flying Wolves.

Arthur has stressed the importance of patience and sticking to a defined game plan in his early exchanges with the players.

Once Leeds have laid a platform through effort and smarts, they will given the green light to play their natural game.

"I feel like the team plays a real exciting brand of football at times but we're last for errors in the competition and last for errors out of red zone," said Arthur.

"You need to be able to build a little bit of pressure. You can't play exciting football if you don't have the ball.

"I need to be very careful because I said to the team that I don't want to judge them on what's happened in the past because I don't think that's going to help us. If you talk about errors and keep concentrating on errors, sometimes it becomes more of a problem than it was and they stop playing a bit of footy.

"We're talking about the style of footy we want to play and how we've got to build the game and then hopefully that cuts out some of the errors."

Arthur has only 10 games to get a tune out of the seventh-placed Rhinos, who came into round 18 four points adrift of the play-off positions.

Leeds face a challenging run-in that features two fixtures against both Hull KR and defending champions Wigan Warriors, as well as a crucial clash with Salford Red Devils.

The Rhinos have lost their last six matches against top-six sides, a record they must improve to have a chance of claiming a play-off spot.

Arthur is approaching the challenge with enthusiasm.

"The aim is to be better than where we sit right now," said Arthur, whose future beyond the end of the season is uncertain.

"I'm looking at it as a positive that seven of the 10 games are against the teams that we need to take points off.

"A win is not only two points for us but two points off them as well. If you manage to do that on a few of them, they're four-point games.

"There are standards and expectations that we've talked about and set and I'm not going to chop and change from them week to week. The boys have got real clarity around how our game needs to look.

"Now it's a matter of trying to execute that on a weekly basis. It's going to take a bit of time but as long as they're committed to doing it and not straying away from it, hopefully we get a few small wins along the way. If it doesn't go their way, they've got to stick at it and trust that we'll come out the other side.

"We're actually looking forward to those games because they're pretty important and could be real positives for us."

First things first, Leeds need to get past title-chasing Hull KR at Headingley.

"They’re a good side and are playing well," added Arthur. "But it’s about how we manage and build our game."