Leeds Rhinos news: Rohan Smith talks Kruise Leeming injury and reflects on festive loss to Wakefield Trinity
Captain Kruise Leeming was cleared of serious injury after limping out of Leeds Rhinos’ 38-20 defeat by Wakefield Trinity on Boxing Day.
Leeds led twice, but conceded five tries in the last quarter and Leeming, who was among their scorers, went off in the final moments.
“He felt like if he’d had a few more minutes he would have been all right,” coach Rohan Smith said of Leeming.
“In a competitive game we probably wouldn’t have made that substitution, but he came off because we could.”
Ash Handley didn’t feature in the second half and Smith confirmed that was also precautionary.
“He had some kind of oblique or core niggle,” the coach said.
“He was only going to play half a game anyway, so he pretty much got to there.”
Trinity took an early 8-0 advantage and were 14-10 ahead at the break, but Leeds rallied to lead by sx going into the final quarter.
Smith fielded only six players with a squad number in the first 17 and insisted: “I had hoped to get an indication of individuals and where they are at, physically and footy-wise and I think I got a pretty accurate appraisal of each player.
“The more experienced players and the players at the front end of our squad showed a lot of promising signs and looked fit and healthy.
“We chopped and changed a lot and lacked any real cohesion, which we expected.
“We had a plan for each player and pretty much stuck to that.
“They had a very experienced team out there at various times and it was fantastic for our young players to get that exposure.”
Smith revealed a groin issue led to teenage half-back Jack Sinfield being left out of the Boxing Day squad.
“That held him back out of training for 10-12 days,” he stated.
“He also had an illness on the back of that. He is almost back to full training, but as an 18-year-old kid, I wasn’t prepared to throw him out there.
“Everyone who was fit and raring to go got a game.”
Rhinos are back in pre-season action at Leigh Leopards on Saturday, January 21.
Smith said: “The next six days are off for everyone and when we resume we’ll be building it up and getting some hard work in, leading into the next game against Leigh.”