Leeds Rhinos working new deal as 'luxury' Kallum Watkins set for career milestone v Warrington Wolves
Leeds Rhinos are close to agreeing a new contract with veteran Kallum Watkins, who will make his 400th career appearance in Saturday’s big game against Warrington Wolves.
Watkins rejoined Rhinos from Salford Red Devils two months ago and has been a key figure in their current four-game winning run. The home clash with Warrington will be his 266th in two spells with Leeds and his career tally also includes 96 games with Salford, eight for Gold Coast Titans and 30 England appearances.
Watkins is contracted to Leeds until the end of this season and sporting director Ian Blease is lining up a role for him on the backroom staff once he hangs up his boots - but, based on current form, that won’t be for another year at least. “We want Kallum to stay, he wants to stay - I am sure that will get sorted sooner rather than later,” coach Brad Arthur said of a potential playing deal for 2026.
A centre during his first spell with Leeds from 2008-2019, Watkins has played five times since returning to the club, mainly operating in the pack, but also filling in as a back when needed because of injuries. Arthur described having the versatile 34-year-old in his squad as a “luxury”.
He said: “He’s just a footballer, you can put him anywhere and he goes and gets his job done. The most pleasing thing is his attitude, whatever I ask him to do, I do because it’s best for the team.
“That’s where I am really proud of the group at the moment. Not everyone is going to be happy with every decision I make, but I am making decisions on what’s best for the team. He has moved to the middle, to an edge, played in the halves, gone into the centres - he has done whatever’s needed to try and help the team win.”
Saturday’s game could also be memorable for Watkins’ former Salford teammate Marc Sneyd, who is approaching two Super League milestones. A week after winning his third Lance Todd Trophy - as man of the match in Warrington’s Challenge Cup final loss to Hull KR - the half-back needs two goals to become Super League’s fourth-most prolific kicker and eight points to go into sixth place on the competition’s all-time list of scorers.
“He has got a tremendous kicking game,” Arthur said of Warrington’s scrum-half. “We’ve done some work around it, but we’ve got to be careful not to over-focus on it and forget about the other threats they have across the field.
“He’s a good player and he is going to nail something at some stage, so it’s about how we react and handle that and move on and do our next job. That’s our focus and priority.”
Arthur isn’t expecting Warrington, who pipped Rhinos 16-14 at HJ Stadium in March, to be suffering from a Wembley defeat hangover. He warned: “They were very good and unlucky in their last game. They didn’t get the result, but they’ll be confident on the back of their last performance. We are expecting the best version of them.”