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Leeds Rhinos v Manly Sea Eagles: We’ll put it right on big stage - Griffin
Darrell Griffin.
New boy Darrell Griffin is confident that Leeds Rhinos will be all right on the night.
Rhinos suffered their first defeat for six months – and seven matches – when they slumped 20-6 at Wigan Warriors three days ago.
The Stobart Super League champions will, therefore, go into Friday’s Heinz Big Soup World Club Challenge against Manly Sea Eagles at Headingley Carnegie on the back of a defeat, but Griffin – who scored Rhinos’ lone try at Wigan – reckons that could be a blessing in disguise.
Griffin believes the setback at DW Stadium has highlighted areas that Rhinos need to work on and will ensure they are fully focused on getting back on track.
“Obviously I enjoyed the try, but on the other side of it, it was a disappointing performance,” said the former England prop, an off-season signing from Huddersfield Giants.
Poor
“But it was probably the kick up the backside we needed for this week.
“In the long run it won’t do us any harm. Our completion rate was pretty poor and I would imagine we will be working on that this week in training and we’ll get it right for Friday’s big game.”
Friday will be Australian NRL champions Manly Sea Eagles’ first competitive game of the year and – unlike when they beat Rhinos in 2009 – they haven’t played a warm-up match in this country.
Griffin feels that could give the hosts an edge.
He said: “We have had two tough games. Hull KR in the first one was really tough and going to Wigan was a tough ask, especially after they lost their first game.
“We knew they’d be pretty revved up, that they would put in a performance and play to their potential. We played under par and it bit us on the backside.
“But it won’t hurt us, if we had gone there and had an easy game that wouldn’t have done us any favours for this week.”
Rhinos qualified for the World Club Challenge by winning last October’s Super League Grand Final against St Helens, before Griffin had signed for the club.
He said: “It is a huge game on Friday. I am only playing in it off the back of what the boys did last year, but I am really excited.
“Hopefully I did enough on Saturday, I made a couple of errors, but I hope I played well enough to get into the side.
“It will be a huge game for me if I do, only the second final I have got to play in so it would be fantastic.”
Griffin – a Challenge Cup finalist with Huddersfield three years ago – added: “I am still getting to know the boys here and how they play and they are still getting to know me.
“But to play in a big final three games in is awesome. I have mentioned plenty of times that I want to play in big finals.
“The third game in my Leeds career could be a big final and hopefully it is one of three that we are going to play in this year.”
The World Club Challenge has its critics, but Griffin isn’t among them.
He said: “You are the best team in the world if you win it. I think it is a great concept and I would like to see it go over there.
“It doesn’t do it any good being over here all the time and taking it to Australia would have been great, but that’s probably later on down the line.”
The majority of Rhinos’ likely side for this weekend were in the team which lost to Manly three years ago, but Griffin admitted: “I don’t know much about them.
“I am a bit tight and I don’t pay for the NRL games, because they are not on Sky.
“I know they have got some great players and I have played against some of them, such as Jamie Lyon.
“They are typical Aussies, I am sure they will be confident. The general sense is they look down on Super League and regard the NRL as the best comp in the world.
“They will be trying to prove that, so we will have our hands full, but we will fix up the things we got wrong on Saturday night and take it from there.
“We will be playing in front of a packed house at our home ground and I know we will lift a gear for that.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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