James Bentley has admitted that he has made a concerted effort to improve his discipline after a difficult start to life at Leeds Rhinos. Bentley, a boyhood Rhinos fan, was sent off 16 minutes into his debut which resulted in a four-match ban and has conceded that he still has work to do to clean up his act.
The amendment to rules and more severe punishments have heightened the need for clean discipline, something that is proving more challenging for some players than others. Bentley has been known for playing the game on the edge and admits there's a fine line between right and wrong.
That has resulted in him working to tidy up his game as part of a wider discipline issue that has damaged the Rhinos throughout the season.
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"It is hard, especially in the heat of the moment when I get that red mist," Bentley said. "But I'm getting older, I need to learn that and if I want us to win I need to understand that I have to be on the field, we're not going to win when we're down to 12 men.
"I need to learn, I need to work on my discipline, even last Saturday I gave away a few penalties that I need to get out of my game. Jonesy (Jamie Jones-Buchanan) is helping me with that, trying to control myself and take it out in the right way and look after my work. He's telling me it's no good me being off the field and taking us down to twelve men. He loves how competitive I am and my work rate, but he will just pull me to one side and grab me and tell me to keep my head."
Bentley admits he is adapting somewhat begrudgingly. Several players across Super League have been critical of the severity at which changes are being enforced on player behaviour.
"I like to play the game aggressively but they're changing the rules and I've got to understand that if I want to be playing, I've got to accept it. I've got to abide by it, as much as I probably don't like it, but that's the way the game is going so I've to work hard and not get sent off basically."
Bentley believes the issue is wider than just him as an individual. Leeds have had seven cards in seven games so far but they have also been unable to be tidy when in possession of the ball too.
"Everything starts with your discipline. We've got to want to work hard and do the hard stuff and we're struggling with that at the moment and it shows. It's hard because you see us come out in the second half, create that pressure and we've a talented team that can score points easy, but we've to do that for 60, 70, 80 minutes, rather than 15.
"We give too many six again penalties away, penalties on the fourth or fifth, it kills us, we've got to sort it out. We have to sort that discipline out."
