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Leeds Rhinos: Burrow will play anywhere to get a start
Rob Burrow in match action.
Livewire Rob Burrow insists he is still a scrum-half, but will be a happy hooker if it means starting for Leeds Rhinos every week.
Last Friday’s opening Stobart Super League win over Hull KR saw Burrow make his first start since the Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final victory against Castleford Tigers on August 7 last year.
Burrow lined up out of position at hooker, but was on the field for most of the match, other than a brief spell either side of half-time when he was replaced by Paul McShane.
Coach Brian McDermott has pledged to vary his starting line-up against different opposition, which could see Burrow revert to his specialist half-back role or, more likely, be used as an impact player off the bench.
The team boss will not publicly confirm his side for tomorrow’s game at Wigan Warriors until an hour before kick-off, but Burrow is hoping to keep his place in the first 13.
“I love to be on from the start,” Burrow said. “I want to do that and it was good being out there for the majority of the game last week.
“It gives you a lot more time to try and take your opportunities. I want to be a scrum-half, but your pivotal players are your six, seven and nine [stand-off, scrum-half and hooker] and players like Luke Robinson and Tommy Leuluai have gone from scrum-half to hooker.
“I don’t know if it is going that way, but at the moment it seems to be. I am happy to be out there for Leeds, in whatever position.”
Rhinos have two of their biggest games of the season coming up in the space of a week, with the visit to Wigan followed by the Heinz Big Soup World Club Challenge against Manly Sea Eagles six days later.
Burrow said: “It is nice to be playing some tough teams leading into the World Club Challenge.
“We’ve played Hull KR, which was tough and we’ve got Wigan next and we know what that will be like.
“I’m excited about it and I’m looking forward to it. I want to play the tough teams, but there’s no easy games. There certainly won’t be at Wigan.”
Warriors were the last team to beat Leeds, in the Challenge Cup final last August. Their season began with a shock home defeat by Huddersfield Giants five days ago and Burrow reckons that will make tomorrow’s task even harder.
He said. “Wigan are a quality team, it is a big game and they will want to bounce back. We will have to improve.”
Wigan are the only team Rhinos failed to beat in any competition last year. The sides drew at Headingley and Leeds lost narrowly away in the league and the Cup final.
“That’s not something that will be brought up this week,” Burrow said. “We didn’t beat any teams above us on the table until the week before play-offs, but we just want to perform well rather than looking at what happened last year.”
Meanwhile, McDermott will select from the same initial 19 named for the win over Hull KR, with Chris Clarkson and Richard Moore hoping to make the matchday side this time.
Rhinos’ under-20s fixture at Wigan, scheduled for tomorrow, has been postponed due to a frozen pitch.
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
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