Tonight's visit of Castleford Tigers is Rhinos' last home fixture of the regular engage Super League season and a win would virtually guarantee a top-two finish.

If Leeds finish second they will travel to St Helens in the opening round of the play-offs, knowing victory would send them straight through to the Grand Final.

Ellis – in his third season at Leeds following a move from Wakefield Trinity Wildcats – will join Aussie club Wests Tigers next year.

He admitted "I haven't really thought about it, but the more it gets mentioned, the more it becomes a reality, other people keep saying things like 'you haven't got long left here now'.

"I have enjoyed all my time at Leeds, it has been great, but an opportunity came up that I felt I couldn't turn down.

"This may be my last game at Leeds and I want to finish in style. I'll probably be aware of that when I run out, but I just want to go out there and do my job.

"The best feeling would be to get to Old Trafford and win the Grand Final, that would be the best way to finish my Leeds career.

"It will be a bit emotional playing here for the last time because I have enjoyed every minute of it and it has been fantastic.

"Headingley has always been my favourite ground, even when I was a Wakey player. Whenever you played here you always got a big turnout, so it was always a great atmosphere.

"When I was at Wakefield I was on the wrong side of a lot of hammerings, but it was a great place to come and it always will be."

Ellis said he's more concerned about Rhinos' performance tonight than his own swan song.

"As long as we take all the positives from last week's win over Bradford and build on it, we're heading in the right direction," he said. "It'll all go to waste if we don't kick on. That was an important stepping stone for us and we want to push on from there.

"We had to grind it out and that's what we've lacked a bit in previous weeks, being able to get over teams with grind rather than flair.

"Bradford played really well and they really tested us, but it was testament to our boys they way they stuck at it and ground it out.

"Two points are really vital at this time of the season. We are heading in the right direction, but we are running out of games in terms of getting our performance right, so every one counts.

"We want to finish as high up the table as we can, but whatever happens, as long as we are playing well going into those games, we have got a chance.

"All we can do is just keep winning, that's what we'll be trying to do.


We don't want to finish third – we don't want to go to Catalans in the play-offs – so we'll just keep plugging away and keep trying to head in the right direction."

Meanwhile, Tigers back-rower Awen Guttenbeil has vast NRL experience with New Zealand Warriors and he reckons Ellis' move to Wests will be a great success.

"I think he will be fantastic," said the former Kiwi Test star. "He has been a great player from what I've have seen over here and I am sure he will fit in without a problem in the NRL.

"I expect his name to be spoken about a lot, not only as a Pommie player, but as someone that's world class.

"I wish him the best of luck, but I hope he doesn't do too well this weekend!"

Guttenbeil believes Tigers can travel to Headingley in buoyant mood following last weekend's win at Wakefield.

"We can certainly take some good points out of that game," he said. "We've been playing well, it has taken longer than we would have liked and we certainly can't take it for granted.

"We've still got to work hard and coming up against Leeds is one of the biggest tests we've had of late.

"We are under no illusions how tough it will be, but it is a big chance for us, playing one of the front-runners in the competition.

"We have got a huge challenge ahead of us and we'll certainly have to be playing our best footy if we want to get a result."

LEEDS RHINOS: from Webb, Smith, Ablett, Senior, Tansey, McGuire, Burrow, Peacock, Diskin, Leuluai, Kirke, Ellis, Sinfield, Lauitiiti, Burgess, Scruton, Worrall, Gibson, Jones-Bishop.

CASTLEFORD TIGERS: from Donlan, Owen, Shenton, Dixon, Wainwright, Dorn, Sherwin, Higgins, Moore, Huby, Guttenbeil, Lupton, McGoldrick, Henderson, Westerman, Catic, Sargent, Korkidas, Leafa.

REFEREEE: Thierry Alibert (France).

KICK-OFF: Tonight, 8pm.