Leeds Rhinos' Keenan Palasia stresses 'team first' aim, makes big minutes vow for Castleford Tigers derby
Big prop Keenan Palasia says Leeds Rhinos are building their season around a “team first” mentality.
Palasia set an outstanding lead against Salford Red Devils last week, playing the first 65 and last seven minutes as Leeds overcame a string of setbacks to get their Betfred Super League campaign up and running with a 32-6 success. And the Samoa international insisted: “As long as we get the win, I don’t mind how long I play.”
He said: “I just fell into the category of playing for my mates who got injured. It was a team-first mentality and putting my body on the line as well. Anything for the team to get a win.”
The victory was a gutsy effort by Rhinos after they lost loose-forward Cameron Smith and stand-off Brodie Croft to injury in the first half. Scrum-half Matt Frawley had to return to the field after having eight stitches in a hand wound and second-row Morgan Gannon slotted into the number six play-making role.
Palasia reckons Rhinos won’t go far long if they show similar desire and effort in every game. “The biggest takeaway is we can get through any drama we have as a team,” he said. “We had a couple of people go down - in spine positions as well - and we were able to work around that and push for each other and get a win for those boys. We need to have that ‘next man’ mentality all year. It is a long season so people are going to get injured and we need to make sure everyone’s up to the standard we want to be and we keep putting performances like that together every week.”
Rhinos will be favourites to pick up another two points at home to Castleford Tigers on Sunday and Palasia stressed last week will count for nothing if they slip up. “We are one win, one loss, so we need to make that two wins, one loss and then hopefully continue doing that,” he stressed. “We have got the ball rolling now so we just need to keep it going.”
Rhinos are also desperate for a win in front of their own fans following the 14-12 defeat to Wakefield Trinity in round one. Palasia feels that result helped spur the much-improved performance last week. He said: “We had a lot of things to take out of that game and I think we definitely did with the score we put on, our defensive effort and also the effort of the team around injuries and things like that.”
On a personal note, the powerful front-rower is well on the way to becoming a crowd favourite and has no regrets about moving to Betfred Super League from Gold Coast Titans at the end of last year. “I am enjoying it,” he stated.
“There’s a bunch of good lads here and they’ve made it easy for me to transition from the other side of the world. I am lucky with that and having a club as great as Leeds makes it a lot easier as well. I have just got to do my job. Brad [Arthur, Rhinos’ coach] has given us all jobs to do so I just need to do that.”