Leeds Rhinos' Aidan Sezer makes admission over his performance, calls for better in all areas v Hull FC

Sezer accepted he was well below-par when Rhinos began their Betfred Super League season with a 42-10 defeat at Warrington Wolves last week.

He wasn’t the only one to have an off night, but the Australian number seven admitted: “I wasn’t happy with my performance at all.”

Sezer said: “I feel I wasn’t involved enough and I will be looking to be more of a cog in the team, as a half-back should be.

“Hopefully I’ll get my prep’ right this week and put in a good performance for my team on Friday.”

Rhinos will need to be better across the board against a Hull side in confident mood following a 32-30 home win over Castleford Tigers in their opening match.

“We were really disappointed with how we performed last week and we’re looking to turn it around and put in a more positive collective performance this week,” Sezer added.

“I think a lot went wrong, we got beaten in every aspect of the game against Warrington so it’s about improving in every area against Hull, who will be confident after their win on Sunday.”

Round two of a 27 week competition is not the time to be firing on all cylinders, but Sezer admitted Leeds can’t afford a repeat of 2022 when they won only once in their first 10 competitive games.

That left them playing catch up and Sezer vowed: “At this time of year you are probably not going to play your best or be at your peak performance, but you want to be close.

“You want to be racking up points on the competition table because we don’t want to be in the situation we were last year.

“You want to build some confidence in the playing group and I think if you’re playing well wins will come and they’ll bring confidence.”

Rhinos’ home form has been impressive since Rohan Smith took charge last May and being back at Headingley is important, Sezer added.

He said: “We always enjoy playing at Headingley in front of our fans. It is one of the best atmospheres in Super League so we are looking forward to Friday and putting together a complete performance for those guys.”

Hull - whose squad includes former Leeds duo Liam Sutcliffe and Brad Dwyer - played some outstanding rugby to build a 30-6 lead against Tigers, but almost lost the game in the final quarter.

The first hour was a warning to Rhinos and Sezer said Leeds are prepared to face the visitors at their best.

“It’s hard to really get a gauge on teams this early in the season, but they looked good,” he noted.

“Along with Sutty and Brad Dwyer, they’ve brought in some quality from overseas. Tex Hoy played really well and Jake Clifford in the halves is a really good player.

“We know we need to play well, but we are just focusing on ourselves this week and getting our preparation right to perform well on Friday.”