Tough times call for tough talk and more than a little backing

Much as everyone at the club will stress they were raring to go despite the midweek snow that rendered the match unplayable, few could have been relishing a match pitting the worst team in the league with the best.

All signs pointed to Leeds's sequence of nine defeats in nine Aviva Premiership games stretching to 10 from 10.

Instead, Leeds have been afforded respite from what is becoming a rather increasingly desperate situation.

They are not in Premiership action again until December 26 when they travel to Newcastle Falcons – a game to be shown live on Sky Sports – the side directly above them on 10 points.

Winless Leeds have only three. It is a massive game.

For Neil Back, every game is massive. The World Cup winner regards each fixture as a must-win, whether it be the trip to Kingston Park on Boxing Day or yesterday's scheduled mis-match against Northampton.

It is because he is a fighter, one of English rugby's greatest, and why he is not shirking the challenge he now faces.

Last week, ahead of the defeat to Harlequins, a Sunday newspaper alleged that Back would be sacked if Leeds lost the game.

Gary Hetherington, the Leeds chief executive, leapt to the defence of his head coach, stressing that the Headingley dressing room is a tight-knit unit from head coach to head groundsman, director to kit man.

Everyone is in this together.

How right he was to launch a staunch defence of Back. The fighting qualities of Leeds's World Cup-winning head coach – allied with his astute partnership with Andy Key – is the club's greatest asset in their fight against the drop.

Back and Key earned Leeds promotion in their first season and defied the odds by avoiding relegation last term. Success, followed by success.

Back is a winner, and will be feeling the pain of defeat more than anyone.

His sheer bloody-mindedness will not allow this current run of form to go on much longer.

Not that anyone at Leeds can afford such a scenario to play out.

But sacking Back, or Key, or both together, is not the answer.

They approached the Newcastle game in a similar scenario last season, bottom of the table, desperate for a win, and got it.

The second half of last season proved a real turning point in the club's fortunes, with international-class players like Steve Thompson attracted by the fighting qualities of the club and players like Hendre Fourie recognised for their contributions by Martin Johnson and the England squad.

Despite the current predicament, Back remains a top-class operator who players want to work with and learn from.

The mental resolve he and Key have instilled into the squad may have eroded slightly in recent months but the belief still pervades around the club's Kirkstall training base that one win will consign all the heartache that has gone before to history and the renaissance experienced last season will be sparked again.

And who is to say that, should another good run of form lift Leeds away from trouble, Back – who remains one of the big names in English rugby with his coaching stock having risen on the back of his achievements at Headingley Carnegie – won't again become the target for bigger clubs.

No matter what situation Leeds find themselves in, if the coaching or director of rugby jobs come up at Welford Road, Back's name will be high on the Leicester Tigers shortlist.

For his part, Back knows he and Key need to start delivering results soon or something far greater than his own personal cv will suffer – namely Leeds will fall out of the Premiership and back into the Championship, a division which Bristol have shown is not as easy as it once was to bounce straight back from.

Back's approach to the current predicament is to do what he has always done – work his socks off.

"You have to work hard, that's what I did as a player and that's what I'm doing now," he said in a manner understanding of why questions are being asked.

"I worked with world-class coaches during my time at Leicester, England and the British and Irish Lions. Those experiences really help me now. As a player when I was breaking in to the England team there were great players playing in my position, so it was not easy to get in there.

"I only know one way and that is to give absolutely everything and that's what I'm doing. So are the rest of the management team and all of the players. It's all about doing our jobs, as coaches and players, individually better and if we do that we will start to get the results we need."

Back attributes the principle reason for Leeds's struggles as the amount of injuries they have suffered.

He and Key streamlined the team in the close-season, opting for quality rather than quantity, and have been punished with a succession of injuries, particularly at fly-half and hooker.

He brushes off claims of pressure as something they have dealt with every day since taking over at Headingley in June 2008, before conceding: "Our backs are against the wall."

And when they are, who better to turn around and stare straight into the eyes of the firing squad?