Dizzy heights, Harry's game and spoiled for choice: latest Leeds Rhinos talking points

Following their fourth round defeat at Wakefield Trinity, Rhinos are the only team in Betfred Super League’s top seven not to be in Cup quarter-final action. The knockout loss was a setback, but with a quarter of the league campaign completed, Leeds are in decent shape. Here’s five talking points.

1: Rare heights. It lasted less than 24 hours, but Rhinos’ win at Bradford lifted them top of the Betfred Super League table for the first time - outside the opening few rounds - in six years. The previous occasion was on August 2, 2020 when Rhinos came back from 26-6 down with 17 minutes left to beat Huddersfield Giants 27-26 in golden-point extra-time at Headingley. That was the first Super League round since the competition was suspended five months earlier due to the Covid pandemic.

There’s still a long way to go and Rhinos - now second behind Warrington Wolves, who have a game in hand - are one of five clubs on 10 points, but they can be satisfied with how things have gone so far. Two wins in six days suggests Rhinos are over their post-Las Vegas blip and, other than against Hull KR in America, they haven’t yet played their best rugby.

The big test will come when injuries strike, but at this stage, Leeds look like genuine top-four contenders, at least.

2: Newman’s route back. Recent signing Jack Bird has usurped Harry Newman in Rhinos’ 13, but the England man will still have a part to play this season. Newman, who joins Perth Bears in 2027, will have a tough job regaining his right-centre spot if Bird carries on the way he has started, but it’s highly unlikely Leeds will have a fully-fit squad for the entire campaign. The Aussie can cover centre, the halves and back-row (though we probably won’t see Bird on a wing) and Newman will step in if the Aussie has to switch roles, or is injured himself.

Bird isn’t a noted try scorer - he touched down 36 times in 173 NRL games and not at all during 17 appearances for Wests Tigers last year - but has crossed in both his Rhinos starts and been strong defensively. He looks like a good pick up by Rhinos in what is a strong position. Centres Ned McCormack and the currently injured Max Simpson also have Super League experience and watch out for Oscar Brown who scored six tries for the reserves in their 84-6 win at Bradford on Saturday.

3: A Good Friday. Round seven was Rhinos’ first visit to Odsal in Betfred Super League since 2014 (we don’t talk about the Challenge Cup tie in 2019) and a crowd of almost 15,000 showed what Bradford Bulls bring to the competition. The stadium may not be top-flight standard, but there aren’t many English clubs capable of attracting that sort of gate.

There’s a love-hate relationship between the two sets of fans and Leeds have missed the intense rivalry they had with their near-neighbours from 1998-2014. There was certainly more of a buzz around rivals round than when Huddersfield Giants were Leeds’ manufactured opponents. The fixture at Bradford was the sort of challenge - narrow pitch, short turnaround, fired up opponents - Rhinos needed to pass to be considered title contenders, so all in all, a very good win.

4: Odsal observations. So how is Odsal nowadays? It hasn’t changed much since 2014 - or 1996 - but, though it looked gloomy on television, the floodlighting was fine in the stadium and the pitchside area is much tidier now the stockcar track has been removed.

Bulls have been unused to five-figure gates and there are some teething issues to sort out, no soap in toilets before the match is pretty basic stuff and there were long queues for food and drink, but the atmosphere last weekend, with a large travelling support was pretty good and - on a dry night - there are worse places to watch rugby league.

5: Spoiled for choice. It’s tough on the likes of Presley Cassell, Jeremiah Mata’utia and Ethan O’Neill who aren’t getting a game at the moment, but Rhinos coach Brad Arthur has made it clear he doesn’t like resting fit players. He could have made personnel changes last weekend, to combat the five-day turnaround, but instead chose to “share the workload”. That meant Danny Levi, Cameron Smith and Keenan Palasia switching to the bench with Chris Hankinson, Jarrod O’Connor and Cooper Jenkins all getting a start.

The tactic worked; the starting pack were solid and all the substitutes - Smith and Levi in particular - had a big impact. Hankinson’s move into the second-row, having previously played in the outside-backs, gives Leeds’ squad another useful option for when the going gets tough later in the season.