Leeds “wary” of Toronto threat, says Rhyse Martin

Sam Charlton 04 Mar 2020 1:15 PM

Rhyse Martin says Leeds are “cautious” ahead of their meeting with Toronto on Thursday night.

The Rhinos go into the game on the back of three consecutive wins, while the Wolfpack were beaten 32-0 by St Helens last Saturday as their difficult start to the year continued.

That leaves Richard Agar’s side fourth in the table and the Wolfpack bottom, meaning the Rhinos are heavy favourites to pick up the two points.

However, having seen the Canadian side in action this season, Martin does not believe that the match will be in any way straightforward.

He said: “They’re starting to come good and find some form, I know St Helens was a bit of a tough game for them but I don’t think they’re far off a win.

“The way that they’re playing at the moment shows they aren’t scared to throw the footy around and they’re not holding back, they’re still attacking really well and some of the offloads that they’re making errors from, if they stick then they’re scoring tries.

“That’s just where they’re at, but once they click I think they’re going to be very hard to beat.”

Having held Warrington to nil and conceded just 18 points in their last three outings, Martin is expecting to have to put in another strong defensive display if they are to beat Toronto this week.

He added: “We’ve just got to do what we did well against Warrington, just keep turning up and defend really strong against them because their back three or back five are very strong ball carriers and very skilful players who can get them going forward.

“Then they’ve got Sonny [Bill Williams] who is getting plenty of players towards him because he just finds that way to get the ball out.

“It’s a game we’re cautious of because we are wary of how good they are, and we just came off a good win so we don’t want that going through our heads.

“Sometimes teams perform really well and then get distracted, turn up and play pretty poorly the next week so for us it’s our focus that we don’t drop that level and show them the respect that they deserve because they’re playing in the Super League and you never know what might happen with a team like them.”

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