'No reason to rush out': Brad Arthur discusses future after first Leeds Rhinos win

The underperforming Rhinos have shown positive signs under Arthur but will bid farewell to the Australian at the end of the season unless they come to an agreement on a longer stay.

It is so far, so good as far as Arthur is concerned at the start of a new challenge in Super League.

"I love it," he said.

"What I'm enjoying is the level of help, understanding and buy-in from the players and the staff. Everyone has bent over backwards to make my transition as easy as possible.

"I'm open to possibly staying but at the moment, I came in to do a job and need to make sure I'm doing that week to week.

"There's no reason that I'd want to be in a position to rush out of the club. It's a great club.

"I'm enjoying living here. It's tough without my family being here, that's hard, but if the players play like that and win all the time, it'd make it easier."

Leeds defied a five-day turnaround to outlast the Giants and claim a first win at the John Smith's Stadium since 2019.

The game was in the balance with half-time approaching but quickfire tries from Harry Newman and Huddersfield old boy Matt Frawley gave the Rhinos the scent of victory.

Leeds demonstrated their new-found defensive resolve in the second half and got their rewards with a late flurry, including a try for the much-maligned Lachie Miller.

"I am thrilled for the boys, seeing how happy they were after the game," added Arthur, whose first match in charge ended in defeat against KR.

"I don’t know much about Super League at the moment and I am learning bits and pieces, but I was told we were coming to a nice stadium, not to expect much of a crowd, so we really focused this week on coming and making our own atmosphere and having a bit of character about our performance.

"I don’t think we were real smart at times and I don’t think we executed great; we are still a long way off where I’d like us to be but I thought we showed plenty of character.

"We did some good things last week in our defensive line but we managed to sustain it for longer."

After moving to within two points of the top six, Leeds will have one eye on the other matches this weekend with play-off rivals Salford Red Devils and Catalans Dragons hosting Castleford Tigers and Hull FC respectively.

The Rhinos travel to Salford next week and take on Catalans at Headingley in late August, while they also face two games against Wigan Warriors and dates with Warrington and Hull KR.

Arthur is viewing the challenging run-in as an opportunity.

"It's one win so we can't get carried away," he said. "We've got a big couple of weeks coming up.

"We've got to wait to see what happens over the weekend with other teams but the good thing about it is we're playing teams who need the points as well.

"Everyone is seeing that as a negative but I see that as a positive because if we can take the points off them, that's points they don't get.

"We know what we need to do and where we need to try and finish. If we get better every week and that's good enough to keep getting the wins, we'll see where that takes us."