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Matthew Shaw

Richard Agar takes responsibility for Leeds Rhinos' dismal defeat to Hull FC

Richard Agar said the blame lay with him after Leeds Rhinos' derisory performance in defeat to Hull FC.

The Rhinos suffered their fourth defeat in five games as they produced a shocking display as they fell to a 31-8 defeat.

Agar himself admitted to being shocked by the manner of the performance, which had come a week after a solid display in the victory over Wakefield.

But the Rhinos boss said the buck rested with him and that he would look to fix up the issues that have resulted in their disappointing start to the year.

"It's just not good enough for a club with the talent we have inside of it and I'll take full responsibility for it," he said.

"I'm coming off at halftime just blown away with how poor it's been.

"We'd got the line in the sand drawn, we weren't moving up, controlling the tackles, bending our backs, getting numbers into tackles, the kick pressure dropped off, it was a complete lack of intent and pressure defensively, and with the ball, we spoke about Hull having a short turnaround and moving the ball and getting fatigue into them but you're not going to do that if you chance your arm every play and end up over the sidelines. If you look at the play count, we got monstered. Again, that's down to us, it wasn't anything Hull were doing for us.

"I thought the first try was a fair summation of where we were on the night."

Despite that, Agar said he is confident that he and the players could turn the club's fortunes around.

"I think I've been in worst situations than this but I will say when we went with understrength teams we were close in games. Out of those six, we were in most of them and with really patched teams. You look at that starting thirteen tonight, that's a good team, our bench players were arguably our better players tonight I felt at times.

"It's one that I'm struggling to get my head around why it was so bad and give you guys any concrete, valid reason, I'll look to get more answers off the boys tomorrow, but as always I will stress, it's my responsibility, it rests with me and I need to get more from these players or I will be looking at whether I can get the best out of them.

"I'm past the point in my life and career where I'm going to flog a dead horse, so we'll have to turn it around and prove we're committed to each other or it's going to be a long tough season, but I think they can, I think they can."

Agar also shifted responsibility to his pack after he was questioned about the dysfunction that is troubling Leeds' spine.

"I wouldn't want to play in a spine where you're getting smoked in possession and your forwards aren't going to win any tackles, it's a tough spine to play in.

"I think to chase points as we did, we needed to be more controlled and patient in the first half but it was more possession and position more than what the spine was doing. They got some things wrong and we need to do better but that wasn't the root of our problems."

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