'I’ll let him pick the team next week': Leeds Rhinos boss reveals best mid-season signing after win v Hull KR
Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur has revealed the “best signing” of sporting director Ian Blease’s career - and said that player can pick his position in the team next week.
Veteran Kallum Watkins started last night’s (Thursday) 28-6 win against Betfred Super League leaders Hull KR at loose-forward, had a spell as a prop and finished the game in the centres after Ash Handley went off with a groin problem. And an admiring Arthur said afterwards: “I’ll let him pick the team next week, where he wants to play!”
He insisted: “He can just do whatever he likes, in terms of his position. Nothing fazes him; different challenges I give him each week, ‘I need this or I need that’, he just does what’s best for the team and he does it without fuss.”
Rhinos re-signed Watkins from Salford Red Devils in April, six years after he left the club for a spell in the southern hemisphere NRL. The move was made possible by Salford’s financial crisis which has led to the departure of most of their senior players.
Blease was involved in Watkins joining Salford in 2020 after a move to Toronto Wolfpack fell through when the Canadian club withdrew from Super League. Rhinos saw off competition from other top-flight sides to recruit the 34-year-old, who played for Leeds from 2008-2019 and Arthur – who believes he is playing well enough to earn an England recall – added: “I said to Bleasey, he will be the best signing he has ever made. He is a great signing. He has really helped our team.”
Watkins was just one stand-out in a stunning performance as Leeds completed a second win against the Robins in successive months. Full-back Lachie Miller was at the heart of Rhinos’ attack, scoring the third of their four tries and tormenting the competition’s previously best defence with his broken-field running. “He’s a very good player,” Arthur said of the Australian former sevens rugby union star.
“There’s some things there at times [you think] why are you doing that? But you’ve just got to let him go because he is so dangerous and so hard to defend. I feel like the thing he has really improved is, those brain snaps are very few and far between.
“I keep talking to him about staying in control of his emotions because he is such a competitor and he wants to win. He is in the ref’s face, he is in everything, so if he can stay on top of his emotions and make sure he is clear-thinking for 80 minutes, he is a very good player.”
The coach also praised half-back Jake Connor, who crossed for the opening try and kicked six goals from as many attempts. “We challenged Jake around making sure he is in charge of the team and his emotions,” Arthur revealed. “He does a lot of quality stuff and his skillset is really good, but the thing I keep challenging him around is his toughness and his ability to stay focused for the full 80 minutes. That’s his job, to manage the performance of the rest of the guys.”