Rhinos still in the hunt believes frustrated Buderus

Although the West Yorkshire club went down to another defeat, losing 26-24 in an epic encounter, the ferocity and desire in their play left many feeling they should have over-turned the reigning champions.

It served as a welcome reminder of what Leeds – rooted in sixth place ahead of Sunday’s trip to Perpignan – can still bring to the competition with seven rounds remaining, despite their inconsistent year.

“That’s where we want to be,” said Buderus, about the intensity of their effort at DW Stadium on Friday evening.

“We want to compete at that level and that’s what we’ve got to aim for.

“It’s been a very disappointing season for us so far but if we can keep offering that up for the next eight weeks, each giving seven or eight out of ten, I think we’ll be happy.”

In fairness, most of Leeds’s players delivered far better ratings, looking unrecognisable to the team that lost at home to Bradford Bulls just a week earlier.

“We had a gameplan coming here (to Wigan),” said ex-Australia captain Buderus, who led the way with a typically fulsome display.

“But we were disappointed with the 10 minutes after half-time.

“That seems to happen to us a bit; as much as we keep talking about it, we’ve got to fix it up,” he added.

Dominant Leeds led 18-12 at the interval but conceded two quickfire tries to let the champions back in.

“We were in that position at Headingley in April where we didn’t play good enough and they came back to draw,” said Buderus.

“We keep making it hard for ourselves.”

However, he believes team-mate Danny McGuire should have been awarded what would have been a match-winning try late on only to see video referee Steve Ganson rule it out after a huge analysis.

“You can’t look at a try that many times and not award it,” offered Buderus.

“You are looking for a reason not to give a try when you should be looking for a reason to give it,” he said.

“It was very disappointing and there are a lot of contentious calls but it seems to be the go every week so what do you do?

“Catalan are going good with a great style of rugby but hopefully we’ll prepare well again and have them worrying about us,” added Buderus.