Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur confirms talks with Wests Tigers' Royce Hunt and other NRL stars
Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur has confirmed “discussions” with Wests Tigers prop Royce Hunt, along with other players from the southern hemisphere NRL.
At least five of Rhinos’ first-choice 17 will leave at the end of this year, with centre Harry Newman, prop Mikolaj Oledzki and second-row James McDonnell having signed for Perth Bears, loose-forward Cameron Smith heading to Wakefield Trinity and stand-off Brodie Croft joining Warrington Wolves in 2027.
Those departures leave a big gap to fill next season and an Australian media report last weekend said Rhinos are “chasing” Hunt who played for Samoa in the 2022 World Cup final. Asked about that at his weekly preview press conference today (Wednesday), ahead of tomorrow’s huge home clash with St Helens, Arthur confirmed: “We are looking at our options.
“We are getting quite a few guys thrown at us from the NRL at the moment. We just want to be patient, make sure we know exactly where we need to continue to strengthen our roster. There’s some discussions with Royce and quite a few other guys at the moment, but Bleasey [sporting director Ian Blease] is doing a good job of just being patient. We are getting all our things together and we’ll work it out soon on exactly what direction we need to go in.”
Arthur stressed he also wants to give players from Rhinos’ own system a chance. Rookies Fergus McCormack and Presley Cassell are both set to continue in the side tomorrow and Arthur added: “We want to make sure we are keeping the avenue open for a lot of guys that are already here and coming through our system, [like] Ben Littlewood, Pres. We’ve got to make sure we are adding in the right areas without blocking too many pathways, but we certainly want to add a couple more players to our squad.”