Leeds Rhinos v Warrington Wolves latest team news as recent signing promised more time
Import Jack Bird is set to play a bigger role for Leeds Rhinos when they take on Warrington Wolves at AMT Headingley today (Sunday).
Bird joined Rhinos from NRL club Wests Tigers last month and made his debut as a late substitute in the 24-16 loss at Hull FC seven days ago. The Australian former State of Origin representative can play in the three-quarters, halves or back-row and Leeds coach Brad Arthur revealed: “He will get a lot more game time this week.”
The team boss said: “He hadn’t played for six or seven months, but he got a bit of game time last week and a feel for it. He has had four weeks now training with us so he is across what we want to do and what we want to stand for, so he will be getting a lot of game time.”
Speaking after the game at Hull Arthur warned of “consequences” for a poor performance. He has made just one change to his 21-man squad with Presley Cassell recalled in place of Ben Littlewood who didn’t play last week.
Cassell is set to be 18th man and Arthur explained: “There will be consequences mainly around more game time and guys wanting lots of minutes. You’ve got to earn it. Everyone’s entitled to make a mistake, I’ve made plenty and we’ve all made plenty in our life, but there won’t be any repeat offenders.
“I am going to stick up for our team because I know how they feel about what happened, but we need to move on from it. Our guys care about their club and their performance and [last week] wasn’t at our standard. I can handle getting beat, but not the manner of the way we did it.”
With Cassell recalled, Leeds’ initial squad includes 19 of their top-20 players with only Max Simpson, who has been ruled out for the entire year with a knee injury, being unavailable. “It’s good,” Arthur admitted. “We need to make the most of it.”
Warrington coach Sam Burgess will select from the same 21 players named ahead of the 72-6 thrashing of Castleford Tigers eight days ago.
Leeds Rhinos: from Miller, Sivo, Newman, Handley, Hall, Croft, Connor, Oledzki, O’Connor, Holroyd, Watkins, McDonnell, Palasia, Hankinson, Jenkins, O'Neill, C Smith, Mata’utia, Cassell, Levi, Bird.
Warrington Wolves: from Josh Thewlis, King, Hopoate, Ashton, Williams, Sneyd, Yates, Walker, Harrison, Stone, Currie, Powell, Byrne, Crowther, Irwin, Thomas, Philbin, Wood, J Smith, Hartill, Tanginoa, Webster.
Referee: Jack Smith (Wigan). Kick-off: Sunday, 5.30pm.