St Helens v Leeds Rhinos: Richard Agar planning for ‘toughest challenge in the game’

After all, these two clubs contested four of the five Grand Finals between 2007 and 2011.

Such was their dominance, Leeds prospered in every one while their rivals have lifted just one title in the last dozen campaigns.

However, for a third time in just four years, Rhinos’ hopes of even contesting for a place at Old Trafford this term are already all but mathematically over.

The prime, and far more prosaic, concern for their coaching staff and hierarchy is simply avoiding relegation.

With that in mind, improvements are clearly being made under the watchful eye of interim head coach Richard Agar who has slowly brought some much-needed solidity to their defence since Dave Furner was sacked last month.

It helped secure crucial wins over London Broncos and Wakefield Trinity but was not quite pristine enough to see off Wigan Warriors last week.

To defeat Saints, though, Leeds’ defence will have to be more organised and resolute than it has been ever before in 2019.

Granted, Justin Holbrook’s side did suffer a rare defeat at bottom-placed London a fortnight ago but they did rest six regulars for that trip to Ealing.

Furthermore, when largely restored for last week’s visit of Huddersfield Giants, the response was emphatic as Saints, who have already scored more than 600 points in just 18 rounds, raced to a 38-2 success.

“It (Saints away) is the toughest challenge in the game at the moment,” said Agar. “They rested six of their very best players at London the other week, but I don’t think they will do that Friday.

“I think they saw the benefits of that when they played Huddersfield last week.

“They were on the back of a very surprising loss, but the energy some of those guys came out with was very impressive.”

Agar has gleaned enough, though, from the squad he has taken over in recent weeks to know they can still have confidence looking forward to tonight’s fixture.

“While we didn’t get the result the other night against Wigan, we certainly know the areas we need to get better in,” added the former Wakefield and Hull FC chief.

“We absolutely earned the right for field position in the second half with some first-class defence, aggressive defence and great kick pressure. We dominated field position – Trent (Merrin) got held up, Ava (Seumanufagai) got held up over the line, we were creating chances.

“But the weight of possession we had on our kicking game wasn’t what we wanted.

“It is very easy to zero in on our kickers, but we have talked about more people need to play on kick plays: don’t just expect the kicker to put it where it needs to go.

“We need people around him with good movement and good shape and different options in our team, rather than just hang, drawing and quartering our kickers.”

Going up against England half-back Jonny Lomx and French international Theo Fages tonight, whoever plays in the halves for Leeds will already realise their can be similar profligacy with the boot.

Richie Myler had an off-night against Wigan but will know he can quickly put that to bed this evening.

Agar admitted: “We can’t get away from the fact some of our kicks weren’t up to standard and some of them showed a distinct lack of patience.

“Donno (James Donaldson) kicked away on play three, Sutty (Liam Sutcliffe) kicked away on play three. We have just got to get teams to the end of our sets and keep building pressure through sets.

“We took some poor options last week and there was one of our sets when I think we tried three or four barge-overs.

“That is really not smart team play. If the guys see it and come up with it, that’s great, but three times in a set, I think we need to be asking more questions than that. That will come down to some work we need to do on the training field.”

Agar has been pleased with the dedication shown in improving their defensive technique but now more time will be spent on honing their attacking talent.

The expected return of England Knights full-back Jack Walker tonight should help on both counts.

“At times this year there has been some very good effort, but it was self-centred, not team-based,” he reflected.

“I look at our attack now and it’s about getting our key positions on the same page and getting everyone playing well, but playing play-on-play.”

“You can’t be having one crack and then putting your cue in the rack for the rest of the set. We have to ask the right questions for that play.”