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Matthew Shaw

Leeds Rhinos coach Rohan Smith on ignoring the table, James Bentley injury and Sam Walters cameo after Salford win

General thoughts

We've spoken about finding different ways to win. They're a hot team that plays a lot of attacking rugby. The scoreline wasn't a fair reflection but I think the better team won too.

Scoring three tries early

Some of our starts haven't been the best so it was positive to get going there. We knew it would come back the other way at some point and their two tries in the first half were highly skilled with lots of touches of the ball. You can learn but you have to tip your hat sometimes too and say it was good play.

Defence

We lost the ball in contact a few times there back to back which added to the defensive burden but looked reasonably connected and were able to turn them away enough.

Read more: Leeds Rhinos player ratings as Rhyse Martin shines in excellent Salford Red Devils victory

We dodged a few bullets to be fair. They poked through more than we'd like but they're a highly skilled team that has a lot of belief in what they're doing. We were connected enough on enough plays to get the job done but I'm not sure the scoreline was indicative of the battle out there.

Being in the play-offs

Two points is what we're after and that's the weekly battle, to get ready for the next opportunity.

When he'll start looking at the table

After our last round or whenever the result of the game is dependent on the placing on the ladder, at this point in time it makes no difference to how we're going to prepare based on the ladder. So I'm not sure why it's helpful to look at the ladder, that's what fans do and good luck to the fans, they'll be happy tonight and they'll enjoy that.

The Ash Handley intercept

It's always speculative to say how big a play it was. We were in pretty good defensive shape there and in front at the time. It helped the scoreboard but it was a result of good defensive connection.

James Bentley

I'm not exactly sure there. He was fine to continue but we had an interchange left so we used it.

Sam Walters' short stint

We were only after a short shift there for Sam. With the way Mikolaj played the whole first half again with that heavy workload our middles our getting through the fourth on the bench is there for a cameo really and that was all we really planned to do today.

Does the mentality change now they're in the top six

My sickness or disease is that I'm chasing a perfect game and perfect performance. I know it will never come but that's my weekly challenge, to do my best to prepare as well as we can to play as well as we can. It's a weekly quest to chase two points.

James Donaldson

He's OK I think, he wasn't right to play today but I'd imagine he'll be good pretty soon.

How far they've come since his first game in charge

I spoke to the players when I got here about being willing to win in different ways. I like my team to pass the ball and not be too rigid with our play. But today I thought our defence more than anything got us home. Being able to lean on your defence is critical, especially in the big games. Some weeks you're not going to get all aspects of the game at the standard you want. But we did enough today to be the better team.

Rhyse Martin

Rhyse is trusting his swing and putting the work in. They're coming off sweet and you hear the energy in the crowd once it hits his foot. Then you hear the voice. Rhyse is a good, all-around player.

Does he have pride in the turnaround?

We've played well today and played pretty consistent over a period of time. We haven't been at our best each week which you're never going to be but we've got control over the situation, which is better than the opposite. But it's on to the next for me.

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