Leeds Rhinos reaction: Corey Johnson tipped for first team rugby by coach Richard Agar after impressing in win at Bradford Bulls

Johnson will be available to Bradford on loan when not required by Rhinos, but - after seeing him star in yesterday’s 30-12 pre-season win over Bulls - Agar insisted he is very much part of his plans.

“He has shown strong leadership with his team all week,” Agar said of the 21-year-old, who has just two first team games under his belt.

“It was his first game back [from injury], he played 80 minutes and I thought he was outstanding for us, as was Jarrod O’Connor in his workrate and strength.”

Agar pledged: “Corey is a genuine contender to play first grade for us.

“He plays hooker, but he is really comfortable playing in the halves, he can play middle if you need him to and he’s the type of kid you could throw in many positions and he’s that smart he can carry it off.

“He has really shown [yesterday] what a capable rugby league player he is.”

Agar also hailed rookie centre Max Simpson, who was promoted into the full-time squad two months ago.

Simpson, 17, also featured in the previous week’s win over Featherstone Rovers and Agar said: “He is a kid who, talent-wise, is doing all the right things. He has had a couple of really impressive outings for us already.

“I thought his first try was a brilliant effort, how he got past the full-back, accelerated and got between the posts. He took his try in the far corner really well as well.”

Overall, Agar was pleased with the way Rhinos turned things around after trailing 12-0 at half-time.

He said: “In the first half I thought we were tackling all right, handling their big fellas, but from an attacking point of view we were playing long and out the back and sideways.

“On a pitch like that, we needed to get direct. At times it almost looked too much like a team run; we had two points of attack and we wanted to put some plays on, but on a 55 metre-width pitch and a surface like that, we needed to try and play through them a bit.

“At half-time we just needed to change around and learn the lessons from the first half and we went out and threw a quick 18 points on them just by carrying hard, playing the ball quick, pushing and supporting and using some footwork and making people miss tackles on us.

“From that point of view, great - we have listened, adapted and made the necessary changes to our mindset in what we wanted to do with the ball and we came up with 30 unanswered points.

“Friendlies aren’t about the result, but we can be happy that [after] we made some errors and didn’t have the right mindset in good ball, we changed that around and played a really strong game in the second half.”

Forward Sam Walters will be assessed by Rhinos’ medics after suffering a shoulder injury, but long-term casualties Jack Walker and Liam Sutcliffe both returned to the team and Agar said: “It was good to get them through unscathed.

“Liam got plenty of touches of the ball and I thought Jack, after a difficult start of us, really found his feet in the second half.

“We were happy with the contribution from those two and the game time they managed to get through.

“We’ll look to give them some more on Sunday against Hull.”

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