Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur hails 'ultra-reliable' James McDonnell after Super League Dream Team honour

McDonnell saw off strong competition to be selected in this year’s Betfred Super League Dream Team and Arthur reckons that is well-deserved recognition for the ever-present forward. The 25-year-old made six first team appearances for hometown club Wigan Warriors from 2020-22 and joined Leeds following a spell on loan in the Championship with Leigh.

Despite being a top-flight rookie when he made his debut three weeks into the 2023 season, he has missed only six of Rhinos’ 85 games during his three seasons at the club. Arthur said: “He is probably one of those guys who has been a bit unnoticed because he just does his job every week.

“He is very easy to coach, you don’t have to worry about him a lot. He is ultra-reliable, he turns up, he is physical every week and he makes it tough for the opposition. He has worked really hard and he gets all the simple things right in his game - he has been very consistent.”

McDonnell was a non-playing member of the England squad for last year’s mid-season international against France and is in the training group ahead of this year’s Ashes. Arthur insisted: “I feel like he has got way more improvement in him.

“There’s been times this year when he has missed opportunities; that’s about improving some vision and some stuff he does with the ball, but I like the mentality and attitude he comes with every week. He works extremely hard; you probably take him for granted a bit because he keeps churning through all the work and takes all the tough carries as well.”

Rhinos’ other Dream Team representative, scrum-half Jake Connor, was last week named the club’s player of the year and is expected to be on the 2025 Man of Steel shortlist. Connor joined Rhinos last autumn from Huddersfield Giants and Arthur admitted: “At the start of the season I didn’t think he would be our player of the year and that is credit to Jake.

“He has probably had a lot of people, not doubting him, but wondering whether he was ever going to reach his full potential. I wasn’t aware of how much quality he had about him and his full potential, but I feel like our team environment and the behaviours and standards of the rest of the group has helped him and kept him trying to achieve on a weekly basis. The natural thing for him is to challenge him. He is gifted, so you need to put him in an environment that’s conducive to him.”

Arthur had no complaints about Leeds players who missed out on the Dream Team, which is selected by the same panel who vote for Man of Steel. He stressed: “Every coach is going to have a couple of guys. I feel like Lachie Miller [could have been included], but look at the full-back that gets in there [Wigan’s Jai Field]. Bevan French is not in there, you can’t have them all can you? We’re just pleased we have two in there.”

Connor has missed Rhinos’ past two games with a rib injury while Miller wasn’t risked against Wigan Warriors last Friday because of a calf muscle issue. They, along with captain/centre Ash Handley (groin) and winger Ryan Hall (ribs) are back in full training and will be in the team to face St Helens in Saturday’s elimination play-off at AMT Headingley, Arthur confirmed.

He said: “We’ve seen the difference at training [on Monday]; when you add back a bit of class and quality to your team it injects a bit of confidence. They trained well so our left-edge has a totally different look to what it has been the last couple of weeks.

“We know the quality our captain brings and we have missed his leadership a little bit as well. Jake is one of the form players in the competition so he will be a handy addition for us; it allows Kallum [Watkins] to get back into the middle, controlling the forwards and Lachie is a threat out the back that we probably missed last week.

“Hally needed the week off, he has been playing busted for a while now. Ash, Lachie and Jake were all touch and go for last week, but we thought there were bigger things ahead.”