Coach Richard Agar reckons Leeds Rhinos will continue to meet Super League’s Covid-19 disruptions head on

Rhinos are Covid-free at this stage, after standing down seven players over what proved to be a false alarm last week.

All those players have since been cleared to return to the squad and Rhinos have had 32 in training ahead of Friday’s Coral Challenge Cup quarter-final against Hull KR.

But Agar fears it is inevitable his side will be impacted again at some stage by the pandemic - and vowed they will roll their sleeves up and do everything possible to keep fulfilling their fixtures.

Preparations for the game against Huddersfield Giants at St Helens’ TW Stadium last Friday were disrupted when a family member of one player began feeling unwell.

The player went into isolation, as did six club-mates who had been identified as having had “close contact” with him at training.

Test results came back negative across the board, but not in time for the players to feature against Giants - though they did drive to the game, individually - in case they were called on.

On-loan Brett Ferres was drafted into the side at short notice, Alex Sutcliffe got only his third start for the club and Adam Cuthbertson made an unexpected return from injury.

“The players subsequently passed their tests, so we could have played them,” said Agar, whose team won 13-12.

“But the situation is what it is, we can’t take any risks and we’re not allowed to take any risks.

“We have got to be adaptable and ready to move on the run and do what’s best for the game and keep us on the field.

“We didn’t panic or stress too much about it, we just felt it would give some guys an opportunity they would not have got otherwise.”

As Alex Mellor told The Yorkshire Evening Post yesterday, the players who were stood down each made the journey to St Helens in the hope that test results would come through in time for them to play, if they were clear.

“It was very frustrating for the guys who had to drop out,” Agar admitted.

“But we are working in a different time at the moment and it’s whatever it takes and what we’ve got to do we will do it to keep the game on the field.”

Friday’s quarter-final will be Rhinos’ first Cup tie this season, though Hull KR beat Leigh Centurions - thanks to a try on the final play - in a fifth-round tie in March.

The sides were paired together when the sixth-round draw was made, on the day rugby league was suspended because of coronavirus, but that was abandoned when the surviving lower-division teams pulled out after their Betfred Championship and League One seasons were cancelled.

A joint sixth-round and quarter-final redraw was done in July, with Leeds and Rovers getting a bye before, again, being linked in the last-eight.

Leeds were drawn as the home team both times, but Friday’s tie will be played on neutral ground, again at TW Stadium, as the second part of a double-header also featuring Catalans Dragons against Salford Red Devils.

The two teams will be back on the road six days later for a Super League meeting, being played on a Thursday afternoon at HJ Stadium in Warrington.

For Leeds that means three trips across the Pennines in as many weeks, all of them to face Yorkshire opposition - and two of which should have been at home. Castleford Tigers boss Daryl Powell was unhappy at having to visit St Helens for a Challenge Cup sixth-round tie against Hull last Sunday, but Agar has no complaints about the schedule.

“We are in strange times,” he conceded.

“It is strange having no fans, it’s strange driving to a game not knowing what your team’s going to be, it’s strange having to operate day to day without having too many team meetings and things like that. I don’t care [about the travel], I am of the attitude we have got to do what we’ve got to do.

“I looked at Cas on Sunday and you have to have some sympathy for what they’ve been through, with the games, the injuries, the short-notice changes, not knowing who their opponents are.

“But, at this moment in time, it is different and different challenges are going to be thrown at you to make it to the end this year.

“I think we have all got to cop it and wear it.

“It affected us last week and it’s going to affect us more when we’ve got midweek games.

“It is going to affect every single club in some way and I think we’ve just got to do our best.”

Agar added: “As coaches, when your team’s not winning we are the ones all the eyes are on about what you’re not doing and what you’re doing wrong, but I know we can’t prepare our teams in the normal way we would.

“That’s not going to change for this year, we’ve got to get on with it and do our best and hope our owners don’t hold it against us too much if we have some little bumps in the road along the way.”

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