Leeds Rhinos milestone man James McDonnell talks centre switch, try-scoring run and 'ultra-reliable' aim
The results were poles apart, but Leeds Rhinos’ past two games have been deja vu for Leeds Rhinos’ in-form forward James McDonnell.
The former Wigan Warriors man bagged a brace of tries and reached a personal milestone in both, making his 100th appearance for Leeds in last Sunday’s 42-12 home win against Bradford Bulls a week after reaching a century of Betfred Super League appearances when Rhinos lost 34-32 at Castleford Tigers.
His achievement in the Bulls derby was particularly impressive. It came when he was playing out of position at right-centre, having switched from the second-row in a reshuffle following the loss of winger Maika Sivo with a broken arm - and his first score was an interception from inside Leeds’ half.
“It’s not one I am very familiar with at Leeds,” McDonnell – who also picked up a charge from the match review panel – said of his positional switch. “I’ve played it previously in my career, not really at a high level, maybe in juniors. I’ve dabbled with it a bit in Super League and I don’t think it ended up very good for me last time - Esan Marsters turned me inside out about three times, so it was a better experience this time.”
Of the long-range try, which got Rhinos off the mark after they trailed 6-0, he added: “It’s going to be 80 metres by next week! That was good timing just to settle us down a bit, get back to the game plan and reassess what we were doing.”
Though best known for his defence, McDonnell now has 10 tries to his name this season and he admitted: “It is good to add that attacking threat to my game. I think we are the best team in the comp at that type of rugby, off the cuff, offload rugby where everyone’s pushing and being a genuine option. Space opens up and it must be a nightmare to defend against.”
The result against Bulls got Rhinos back to winning ways and left them two points clear at the top of the table. They had to dig deep after being reduced to 15 fit players following injuries to Sivo and forward Ben Littlewood and McDonnell reflected: “Bradford are very threatening, they are probably up there for the most shifts per week in the comp.
“We didn’t take them lightly, we knew what they were going to bring, but we were making errors and giving them cheap possession so we had to be resilient off the back of that. We had to defend it and credit to us, we conceded just the two tries.
“We spoke about last week being a bit of a blip, but it’s not a blip unless you go back to your usual ways straight away. I think we have done that now, we were where we want to be. There’s still loads to build on, we are going to review it and look at some of the negatives and missed opportunities, but we played a good side in Bradford and are 30 to the good in terms of points difference and we are still top of the table.”
McDonnell is in his fourth and final season at Leeds before joining Perth Bears in the southern hemisphere NRL. A member of the 2025 Super League Dream Team, he is in arguably the best form of his career.
“I am just glad I am at a point where I am being relied upon by my teammates,” he added. “I feel like I am playing to a standard where they can trust what they are going to get from me each week.
“That’s where I want to be, I want to be ultra-reliable and someone they know what they are going to get from every single week. Credit to the boys, we made a little bit of a thing about my 100th game and they really stood up and wanted to get the job done for me. I appreciate that.”