Leeds Rhinos 'working at keeping' uncontracted players despite leaving announcement
Some players expected to leave Leeds Rhinos could remain at the club, coach Brad Arthur has revealed.
The departure of Ethan Clark-Wood, Chris Hankinson, Joe Shorrocks and Jack Smith was announced at Rhinos’ awards evening on Monday, when the three who have featured in the first team were presented with heritage certificates. But speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Thursday), Arthur revealed there’s a chance “a couple” of them could yet be re-signed.
He said: “There’s still a couple of guys there we are trying to work at keeping. The guys that are uncontracted for next year, we had to thank them and [show] our appreciation of what they have done for our club, but there’s a couple of guys on that list we are looking to try and keep moving forward.”
Australian Clark-Wood joined Rhinos in February on a one-year deal and featured just once in the first team before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury at training two months ago. Fellow outside-back Jack Smith came through Rhinos’ academy and hasn’t broken into the senior team, spending much of this year on loan at London Broncos.
However, winger Hankinson and on-loan loose-forward Shorrocks, who both signed from Salford late in the campaign, are in Rhinos’ initial squad for Friday’s game at Wigan Warriors. Arthur said: “Joe hasn’t had many opportunities.
“He came in for one game and did a really good job, then had a two-week suspension. He gets a chance tomorrow with his competitiveness and physical presence. He plays the game nice and tough and Chris has been very valuable for us on the wing in terms of his back-field carries.
“He has been strong; his first game was good, but he had a couple of handling errors. He has really kicked on since then, now he’s comfortable with the team and he can give us a bit of flexibility and depth, covering a few spots - centre, six or full-back.”