It’s now six days since that bitterly disappointing defeat at Widnes Vikings. Do you feel it’s out of your system yet?

We’d all like to hope so.

As far as we’re concerned, it’s another day and another opportunity – and we’re really pleased that next opportunity is at home to Leeds tomorrow night.

Leeds have wasted little time proving what a really good team they are.

They’ve hit the ground running and already beaten some good sides, which makes it an even bigger challenge for us.

But it’s one we’re looking forward to.

We’ve just got to make sure we back ourselves and be confident in the things we do.

Yes, Leeds are a good side, but we’re a good side, too, and we’ll relish the chance to show that again tomorrow night.

In the drawn home game against Hull KR and last Friday’s defeat at Widnes, the side led in the latter stages of both games, but then conceded late tries to throw the contests away. What would you say to those who may be questioning the squad’s fitness as a result?

It’s nothing to do with fitness at all.

What’s challenging our condition is the fact we’re giving away the ball so cheaply, which has been the case in the past two games.

In round one at Wigan, we started by completing 19 out of 20 sets, which is a very impressive statistic.

In round two against Hull KR, it was well down on that.

And in round three at Widnes, it was down even more.

That’s asking for trouble.

When you turn the ball over cheaply and fail to complete your sets, you end up doing a lot of defending, and that takes a lot of juice out of you.

It doesn’t matter who the opposition is, that’s bound to take its toll.

So what can you do about it?

Rugby league is a simple game, and if you get the basics right then you’ll get your rewards, just like we did at Wigan on day one.

On that day, we completed our sets, kicked long, chased hard and made people make mistakes. It brought its reward.

In fact, that’s the way we’ve played in all our recent games against Leeds.

Over the past few years, we’ve done exceptionally well against them, and that’s through doing nothing fancy.

That’s what we need to do to give ourselves the best possible chance of beating Leeds again tomorrow night.

One of the key battlegrounds in this latest meeting will be in the backlines, which are regarded as two of the best in the competition. Are you confident it’ll be a battle you’ll win?

Yes I am.

I’ve been asked this week if I’m confident we can match them.

I believe we’ll not only match them, but we’ll beat them, because I genuinely believe some of our backs are better than theirs.

But, at the end of the day, we don’t really care about anyone else.

We need to make sure we get our own game right first, because if we don’t do that then there’s no point worrying about the opposition.

There’s nothing we can do about that.

How pleased were you to see the Under 19s start their season with a win at Widnes last Friday?

It was great.

They’ve been chomping at the bit for some time now, because they’ve had a couple of games cancelled.

As a result, (19s coach) Chris Thorman has had to keep them patient, and it was good to see them start the way they did.

It’ll be interesting to see if they can now back that up with an even better display against Leeds at the YMCA on Saturday.

Have you been able to take a look at the way your prop, Anthony Mullally, is doing on loan at Bradford Bulls?

We were actually taking a look at him yesterday afternoon.

Because we’re at the Bulls next Sunday, we’ve already had a look at their weekend win over London Broncos.

Mull played around 50 minutes, and by all accounts is going well.

The reason we let him move to the Bulls was for him to gain some gametime.

That’s exactly what he’s doing, so it’s working out well for everyone.

At this stage, we don’t know whether his loan deal will be extended there or not.

That’ll depend on whether Mull’s killing it or not.

Obviously, if he’s producing some top performances he’ll get his chance back here.

If we don’t believe he’s performing as well as the players who are playing for us, then we’ll think about extending his stay at Bradford.

But what I can say at this stage is that he won’t be allowed to play against us when we go there next Sunday.

We do want to help the Bulls, but not that much!

And, of course, we also hope the Bulls are helping us at the same time.

Mull’s still young and developing as a player, and the way to help him keep on improving is obviously for him to be playing regularly in Super League. That’s what Bradford are now able to offer him.

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