Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur warns of Sam Lisone threat in father v son clash with 'committed' Hull FC

Hull’s 21-man squad includes Jake Arthur - son of Leeds coach Brad Arthur - who joined them in pre-season from Newcastle Knights. The pair have been on opposite sides once before, in the NRL when Brad was in charge of Parramatta Eels and half-back Jake played for Manly Sea Eagles and the Rhinos boss is determined not to get distracted.

“I spoke to him earlier in the week, but we haven’t really talked too much footy,” he said. “We’ve done it once before, it is just part of the game, but it was weird. It was only early, he hadn’t long left [Parramatta] and I found myself at times just watching a bit of him. I had to snap out of it, I had a team to watch.

“At least I have had that and I’ve been able to learn from that. My focus is going to be purely about the Rhinos and what we’ve got to do and how we’ve got to get better from last week and his focus will be about how he helps Hull.”

Rhinos’ three-game winning run ended when they were beaten 24-14 at Wakefield Trinity in the Betfred Challenge Cup last Friday. They had barely trained in the previous two weeks since returning from Las Vegas, but a long turnaround has allowed better preparation for Sunday.

Arthur admitted that is a boost, particularly with recent signing Jack Bird set to make his debut off the bench. “We’ve had three training sessions this week, I can’t remember the last time we were able to do that,” Arthur said. “I think it was the testimonial game against Bradford [in January], with the schedule and the travelling.

“It has been handy to have three sessions and it has helped him [Bird] be able to get his head around exactly how we play and what we want him to do. He will get some minutes this week.

“He hasn’t played for a long time, I think it has been six or seven months, so our expectations won’t be too high. It is just get him out there, get a feel for the boys and start building on some combinations and connections.”

Sunday will be the first time Leeds have come up against their former forward Sam Lisone - an ever-present as a substitute last year - who was another of Hull’s pre-season recruits. The Black and Whites have lost three of their four Betfred Super League fixtures so far and were also beaten in the Challenge Cup last weekend.

“Their effort has been really good, they are trying hard and they’ll feel like they are defending really well,” Arthur said. “They are at home, we are only five rounds in, but teams are starting to get a bit antsy and they want to get wins so we are expecting a really committed team. They’ve got big Sam Lisone there and I am sure he’ll fire the boys up.”