Furner Not ‘Rattled’ By Rhinos Struggles

Dave Furner says he is far from shaken by his disastrous start to life as Leeds Rhinos coach after Friday’s home loss to London Broncos. A solid defensive effort, coupled with Kieran Dixon’s goal and Jay Pitts’ converted try gave the visitors to Headingley an 8-0 half-time lead before the hosts started to turn the game around.

Tries from Richie Myler, Trent Merrin and Tom Briscoe saw the Rhinos move 16-8 ahead during the second half, only for London to score two late tries through Matty Fozard and Will Lovell to secure a famous 18-16 win for the pre-season favourites for relegation.

Leeds have now lost six of their first seven Super League games to get Furner’s tenure as head coach off to the worst possible start. Despite his team being joint-bottom of the table, the Australian coach is remaining defiant and insists he will turn around the Yorkshire outfit’s poor start to the season, “I’m not rattled. As I always do as a coach I’ll have a look at what was involved in there and the players need to know,” said Furner.

“It’s a long season, there’s going to be no white flag. Let’s look at the players we’ve got and what they can do. For me, the way I feel at the moment, I’m not in a good mood. I wouldn’t say rattled, but I’m not in a good mood. “We’re all hurting. As I said, I’m angry, though I don’t show it. But we have to be better.

“I’m not surprised about anything. I just look at what job needs to be done and what I need to do. I think it’s maybe a rebuild but we’ve contested against some of the best teams in Super League. Maybe a decision go our way or if we executed a little bit better, we’ve got more games.”