Comment: Signs point to a better season ahead for Leeds Rhinos

It is the last thing the Leeds players will see before entering the tunnel leading on to the field of battle.

That is deliberate. There has been a feeling that, over the last four seasons since Rhinos won an historic treble, what made the team and club so successful in the 2000s and 2010s has been lost.

Famously, then-captain – and now director of rugby – Kevin Sinfield summed up the secret of that success in a speech to the crowd after one of Rhinos’ eight Grand Final wins.

Players at Leeds could move to another club for more money, Sinfield admitted, but it was the team’s unique ethos which kept them together.

Since Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and Kylie Leuluai retired at the end of 2015, Rhinos have won the Super League title once and been involved in three relegation battles. Recruitment has been well below that expected from a club of Leeds’ stature, they have had four different coaches and, at times, the team has looked to be going through the motions.

Sinfield returned midway through 2018 after Brian McDermott, the club’s most successful coach, was sacked.

He has made no secret of his dismay over the state he found the rugby department in. His initial effort to rectify things by bringing back ‘old boy’ Dave Furner as coach was a failure but, since then, he has been getting to grips with the task.

Very recent recruitment has been much better and Richard Agar, the latest team boss, has brought some stability to the side.

An emphasis is being placed on bringing through a crop of talented young players – similar to the policy followed in the early 2000s – but the biggest change has been in culture.

A massive onus has been placed on team spirit and togetherness. Inevitably, in any rugby season there will be tough times and a player needs to know the team-mates around him have his back.

The golden generation knew that, the squad of the past four years didn’t.

Agar’s first game in charge, though he had very limited time to prepare, was a Coral Challenge Cup defeat at Bradford Bulls last year.

One of the things he took from that game was the indifference shown by many of his team-mates when Callum McLelland, Leeds’ teenager stand-off, scored his first senior try.

Expect this year to see Rhinos players celebrating tries and important tackles. That’s the sort of thing which underlines team togetherness and has been sadly lacking in recent seasons.

This is a new era for Rhinos after Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Carl Ablett, the final members of the golden generation, hung up their boots at the end of last year,

The way it has responded to Rob Burrow’s motor neurone disease diagnosis highlighted what a special club Rhinos is.

And the reunion of club legends for the pre-season game against Bradford Bulls – which was a fundraiser for Burrow as well as Jones-Buchanan’s testimonial game – gave the current team a glimpse of what they should aspire to.

A full house created an emotional atmosphere as the heartbeat of Leeds’ most successful team took the field together for one last time.

As captain Stevie Ward confirmed today, that is something the 2020 squad can take inspiration from.

Though Bradford brought a sizeable following and there were many neutrals in the crowd, presumably some lapsed Rhinos fans also made the effort.

The new stadium was shown off to its best effect and, if fans past and present can rally round, Friday nights at Headingley will once again become an event, rather than simply a game of rugby. Realistically, Rhinos as a team are still a work in progress.

The squad has some catching up to do to match the likes of St Helens and Warrington Wolves, but form over the second half of last year suggested they are at least heading in the right direction.

It is a young squad, mostly under-30 and the young players now on the fringe of first-team action will have to be handled with care.

But Luke Gale at half-back will give Rhinos a new dimension – particularly last-tackle options and his kicking game – and Kruise Leeming has the ability to be a very good No 9.

Alex Mellor is potentially a Test second-rower in waiting and, in tandem with Ava Seumanufagai, Matt Prior should give Leeds the go-forward they have lacked over the past few seasons.

Seumanufagai, Rhyse Martin and Rob Lui all made a positive impact last year and will be better for the experience and with a full pre-season under their belt.

Stevie Ward is fit and in good shape and, though it’s difficult to be sure until the first ball is ‘kicked in anger’, Rhinos do look in a better situation now than 12 months ago.

Probably not yet strong enough to go all the way to Old Trafford, but certainly capable of pushing for a top-five spot and beginning the process of getting back to where such a huge club belongs.