'A good, calm demeanour': Leeds Rhinos news as captain revealed v Wigan Warriors

The Australian takes over from Cameron Smith, who will lose his ever-present record for the season when he serves a one-game ban on Saturday. Frawley was left out of Leeds’ final match before Brad Arthur took over as coach, against Warrington Wolves, but has played in all three under the new boss, scoring in the past two.

“I feel like he is the one that has been running the team around the field and owning how we need to play,” Arthur explained. “His first two games [under Arthur’s coaching] were really good and he was okay last week. In the first two he really controlled the game, he is nice and calm and feels like the obvious choice.”

Frawley joined Rhinos in pre-season on a two-year contract. He had a previous Betfred Super League spell with Huddersfield Giants five years ago and has played for Canterbury Bulldogs and Canberra Raiders in the NRL.

“He was very pleased about the opportunity,” Arthur added. “We talked to the group about it and what the group can do to help him with it.

“Nothing really changes for him in what we need him to do, except he has to flip the coin at the start of the game and choose whether we receive the kick-off or which way we run. But he has been leading us around the field, he has a good, calm demeanour about him and I saw some good leadership qualities in him on Wednesday at the end of the training session.

“We didn’t quite get something quite right and he walked them all back and said ‘let’s go back and do it again, finishing the session we need to get this right’, so that was good.”