As the Betfred Super League season hits the halfway mark, here is a breakdown of some of the Rhinos' performance statistics, as well as a look at key individual performances so far in 2023.

*All stats below are supplied by OPTA 

Points scoring

Leeds have scored 277 points in the 14 games they've played, ranking them sixth on average. In terms of tries and goals, they have 50 tries (averaging between three and four tries per game), 38 conversions and one drop goal, which came in the 25-24 win over St Helens in round three. As a comparison, Catalans lead the league in points with 372 and tries with 65, whilst Salford have scored the most goals (55). At the other end of the spectrum, Wakefield are bottom in all of the scoring charts.

Focusing on individual performances in the Rhinos camp, Rhyse Martin is leading the way with seven tries and 36 goals, which gives him a total of 100 points. The back rower scored his highest number of tries in a Leeds shirt last year (11), and his tally at the halfway mark this year looks like he could surpass the mark again. Ash Handley, Cam Smith and Harry Newman are just behind him on five tries each; Handley and Smith both extended their tally recently against Saints at Headingley.

Martin's goal-kicking currently ranks fifth in the league with a 73.5% success rate. Interestingly though, he is ahead of last year's tally at this point of the season when he only had 34 goals.

Attack

Moving from try scoring, let's look next at who is influential in those tries being created.

This season has seen Blake Austin and Richie Myler come to the forefront of Leeds' attack, Austin in particular ranking as Leeds' top try assister and line break assister. Twelve of Leeds' tries have come through the hands of Austin, who has played all but one game in the league this season, a highlight being his three assists for the Rhinos' four tries against Huddersfield in round eight.

Compared with the rest of the league, Austin is fifth overall in the try assist metric behind Leigh's Lachlan Lam, Wigan duo Harry Smith and Bevan French and Saint's Jack Welsby. Myler is just behind with eight assists - his most in a single game (3) coming in the 26-0 wintery win against Wakefield.

Martin and Austin also rank highly in basic attacking metrics such as metres and carries. Out wide Nene Macdonald has slotted straight into the Leeds system since his arrival from Leigh. Besides having one try so far in 2023, the PNG international is among Leeds' top five ball carriers, metre makers, post-contact metre makers and tackle busters. Per game, he has averaged 185.3 metres from 17 carries and is over 100 metres ahead of Leeds next best metre maker post contact. To top it off, he has 63 tackle breaks, which is the fourth-best in Super League (French has the most with 87). 

Unfortunately, Harry Newman is set for a period on the sidelines over the next couple of months but he showed at the start of the season that he is back to his best. Newman's strength has been in his offload game, where the England Knights international has made 24 in ten league appearances. That is the fifth most made by a Super League player in 2023 behind Huddersfield Esan Marsters (29 offloads), Toby King (27 offloads), Welsby (25) and Williams (24).

Defence

There is only one place to start in defence, with Cameron Smith and Jarrod O'Connor's battle as the sides' top tacklers.

The pair got out of the traps quickly in 2023 and share all but one of Gorilla Glue's top tackler awards this year. Smith sits as the outright top tackler for the Rhinos and in Super League with 592 tackles - his highest count in a single game coming in defeat to Hull KR when he made 64. 

O'Connor is just behind with 521, but is chased by Wigan's Morgan Smithies and Wakefield's Jay Pitts (both 517). Since taking over as Leeds' first choice hooker, he has hit 50+ tackles in a game twice (versus Hull KR and Leigh Leopards), and has a tackle efficiency percentage of 91.4%, for comparison Smith's is 92.1%.

Looking at the team as a whole against the league, the Rhinos have made the fifth least amount of average tackles with 303 per game. Leeds' overall efficiency though is sixth in the league with 87.3%, just above the total league average of 87.2%.