Leeds Rhinos rookie earns 'very good job' praise as win v St Helens proves youth policy working
Rookie winger Alfie Edgell’s Magic Weekend return highlighted the success of Leeds Rhinos’ youth policy, according to coach Brad Arthur.
The 20-year-old academy product came into the side for his first start - and second Betfred Super League appearance - of the season after Ryan Hall was ruled out with an ankle injury. Playing on the right-wing, he provided the final pass for Leeds’ second try in a 17-4 win against St Helens, but had to leave for a head injury assessment following a collision which earned Lewis Murphy 10 minutes in the sin-bin.
“He’s all right, he managed to come back out on the field,” Arthur said. “He is a tough kid - I was worried for him straight away because he had a broken jaw in pre-season and straight away I thought of that.
“This was his first opportunity into the team and he finished the season really well for us last year. I am just glad he was able to get through to the end of the game injury-free and his head is in a good space.”
Edgell was the go-to player if Rhinos had injuries to wingers last year, but was on the casualty list himself when Maika Sivo suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear in January. Assessing Edgell’s performance, the coach added: “He did a very good job.
“We are lucky - we got the injury to Maika and at the time Alfie wasn’t available and Riley [Lumb] was. Riley stepped up and earned his role and has made it hard for Alfie to get into the team.
“Alfie got his chance through an injury to Hally [Ryan Hall] and did a great job. Teams that are at the top for most of the season are the ones who can have young guys step up and do their job. We are having blokes coming into the team and filling the spot and doing a really good job. They are playing their role and we’ll probably get three or four players back for the next game, which puts pressure on.”
Rhinos led 10-0 at half-time, but had to survive a Saints onslaught after the break before wrapping up a precious two points. Arthur insisted he was confident his side would hang on, despite a series of errors with the ball.
“I’ve got a real level of trust that the players will keep turning up, which is great,” he said. “If we are going to play that way we need to be able to defend our errors and we did that. We’ve just got to learn, we get a bit over-excited and over-emotional and let that carry on.
“We just needed to go back to what the plan was before half-time, once we had moved them around and tired them, to come back through the middle. We will learn from that, but luckily we won’t have to learn it from a loss. We went after the game and now we’ve just got to learn when to pull the trigger and when not to. “
Of the Magic experience, Arthur added: “It has been great, it’s exciting and better when you win, too. I thought it was a pretty entertaining game, I know there were a few errors from both teams, but they didn’t leave anything on the field, they kept playing. Hopefully the fans had a good day and enjoyed the football.”