Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur talks Matt Lodge debut, James McDonnell injury and loss to Leigh Leopards
New signing Matt Lodge could make his Leeds Rhinos debut next week after two key players joined the club’s injury list.
Second-row James McDonnell missed Thursday’s 20-16 home loss to Leigh Leopards with a pectoral muscle injury and centre Jack Bird failed a head injury assessment in the first half, automatically ruling him out of the game at York Knights a week on Sunday.
Lodge is due to arrive this Sunday and could come into the side at York. “It’ll give him a week of training and we’ll see how he goes, but we didn’t bring him over here not to play,” Arthur said of the former North Queensland Cowboys prop.
Explaining the decision to make a signing so close to the end of the season, Arthur said: “He was looking for an opportunity, he is playing for his future. I like his motive of what he wants to do.
“We’ve started to get a couple of injuries in the forwards and if we get one more we are really low. A player of his quality, we are always looking to improve our squad and he is going to help with that.”
Lodge has signed until the end of the season, but Arthur confirmed: “It could be longer, but at the moment he’s going to come over, play well and put himself in the shop window whether it be for us, another Super League club or back home in Australia.”
McDonnell has been one of Rhinos’ most effective forwards this year and is their third-highest try scorer, with 12. He will join Perth Bears in 2027, but Arthur is confident his Leeds career isn’t over.
He said: “He has got a small strain in his pec. It was the last tackle of the game against Wakefield last week. He’s looking at a couple of weeks, the likelihood is he’ll return maybe for the Hull game [on September 11].”
The defeat to Leigh means Wigan Warriors will draw level on points with Rhinos at the top of the table if they win at Bradford Bulls on Saturday. Arthur had no complaints about the result, despite Leeds having a last-gasp touchdown ruled out on video evidence.
He stressed: “Credit to Leigh, they scrambled really well and were pretty brave. I felt like we dominated most of the game, most of the stats, but the biggest stat we didn’t dominate was the scoreboard.
“Our effort was really good, we tried really hard. We were nice and physical and had plenty of want, the desire was really good, but we got some detail wrong around some big moments. They really owned their big moments and in the end that was probably the difference in the result.”
Arthur admitted: “At times, attacking the tryline, we looked to go a bit lateral and the space was probably right in front of us. We got put under a bit of pressure, they scrambled hard and kept turning up so we will get plenty of learning out of that.”