Rohan Smith praises the spirit of Leeds Rhinos in their victory over Wigan Warriors at the DW Stadium

His side went into the break 14-6 down and with only 12-men following Zane Tetevano’s red card, but were well on top throughout the second half of the game at the DW Stadium.

Smith was pleased with the resilience his side demonstrated to claim an impressive two points.

“It was brave and spirited,” he said.

“There’s a lot of belief in that dressing room even though we’ve not performed consistently within games.

“First half was clumsy, and then the referee made a big decision.

“The intercept (from Harry Newman) helped things, that was a huge play. It was an excellent read and execution of skill to do that.

“I never lost belief, and we regrouped at half time.

“There were maybe some similarities to the play-off game here last year in the way we restarted and got the ball rolling.

“I didn’t think about the scoreline too much, but even after the big call, I felt that we were still in it.

“The things that went our way were on the back of good defence.

"The energy at the start of the game wasn’t bad, it was more the execution of skills.

"It’s another game where we’re not overly happy with our whole performance but we’ve only conceded three tries.

"There’s a lot of resilience in the room. The way they held in there during the first half gave us a chance to turn it around.

"It was a collective team performance.”