Adam Cuthbertson: No time for dress rehearsals '“ Leeds simply must beat Widnes

Hull KR's James Greenwood and Chris Atkin, tackle Liam Sutcliffe, of Leeds Rhinos.

IT IS desperate times for Leeds Rhinos and I imagine fans are pretty nervous about Sunday and the next four games.

The middle-eights are a tough competition to be part of – especially when things aren’t going particularly well – and everyone’s aware of how important our game at Widnes is.

We could have taken a bit of pressure off if we had won last week against Hull KR, but we didn’t and we have to deal with the consequences of that.

Even so, I think if we can get through this season and still be in Super League – which I think we will – I am confident we will be better for it in the long-run.

Looking at Sunday’s match at Widnes, it is a win at all costs game.

Last weekend we just weren’t consistent enough in certain areas and that cost us a game we thought we should have won.

I wasn’t around the boys earlier in the week, because I’ve been a bit sick (I’m better now though), but I know they were all disappointed for quite a few days after Saturday.

That’s gone now and all we can do is learn from it and be better next time out.

You always try to take positives from any game and I thought we played some brilliant rugby at times, but we just weren’t consistent enough through the whole match.

We had very good spells and put a lot of points on, but didn’t maintain it and kept letting them back into the game.

Obviously our defence has to be better because conceding 38 points at home isn’t good enough.