Huddersfield Giants v Leeds Rhinos: YEP Jury give their big match preview

Here they preview Sunday’s big game.

MATT FOWLER

I’m not sure what round we are at or fully grasp what rules we will be playing under, but I do know we play Huddersfield Giants on Sunday and Super League is back.

Finally, we get to watch our own teams play and have the chance to invest a little more emotion into some live sport.

The NRL has been good to watch but there is nothing like watching your own team compete even if it is from the sofa.

All the players have talked about how everyone has returned from lockdown in good shape and training is going well, so I am expecting us to come out of the blocks with a real spring in our step. I am sure there will be some rustiness there, but we should still be confident from the start we have made.

It seems a lifetime ago since the season started so I hope we can carry on our good form. It is a shorter season now so we cannot afford a slow start. Top-four will be the aim and playing at ‘home’ will give us a small advantage even without fans.

I’m just looking forward to seeing the boys play and get the competitive juices flowing again.

CHRISTINE KIDD

The day all rugby league supporters have been waiting for will finally be here on Sunday.

Super League is back, Leeds Rhinos are back! It won’t be the same for players or supporters but it is back.

Every team is starting again and the form teams showed in February may not be the same on their return.

I suppose the Rhinos have a slight advantage, playing a pre-lockdown postponed game, on Sunday. Some teams don’t start until the following Sunday.

Kruise Leeming could make his Leeds Rhinos debut against his former team, Huddersfield Giants. Richie Myler will probably continue at full-back as Jack Walker continues his rehab.

If the Rhinos carry on performing as they were before lockdown a win should be on the cards. Team selection will be interesting as most players are now fit. One exception to this is Stevie Ward.

Hopefully he will have some good news soon regarding his concussion. A win would be a great way to restart the season and there is every reason to think that this will be the case on Sunday.

GRAHAM POULTER

So here we are again at long last, a live rugby league game to watch, albeit on television.

In the meantime I’ve been getting my fix by watching the NRL from Australia.

So our first game back is against Huddersfield Giants at home on Sunday.

With a bit of luck most of the players who were out injured when lockdown commenced will be fit for selection.

Saying that, the players that replaced the ones who were out injured did an excellent job in their place.

So we will no doubt see who has kept their basic fitness levels up during lockdown.

Obviously the players need to play to gain their match fitness, but adrenaline alone should see Leeds get a result and carry on where they left off back in March.

Has it really been that long since we last played?

On another topic, what a complete shambles it has been regarding Toronto Wolfpack.The people in charge at Super League and the RFL need to get their heads together and work together instead of against each other for the good of the game in general.

DIANNE HALL

The long wait is nearly over, anticipation is high. I’m not expecting us to hit the highs that we were at before the lockdown as the players will more than likely be rusty and timing will be off.

Though I don’t expect it to be as bad as when the season usually starts in the middle of winter after a pre-season slog in the cold and wet.

The mini-build up has been in warmer weather and should benefit everyone. Selection will be interesting for Richard Agar, if, as reported all the Rhinos are fit but it will be a nice headache for him to have!

The rearranged fixture against Huddersfield Giants allows Kruise Leeming and Ash Golding to play against their former clubs if picked. There have been a few competition changes since the game went into lockdown, some good, some not so.

The RL family has once more shown its positive side with the continued support of Rob Burrow and Mose Masoe, various social media madness from Wayne ‘Wagga’ Godwin and the Dogcasts from Brad Dwyer to keep everyone amused and entertained.

IAN SHARP

At long last we get to do a preview of an upcoming Leeds Rhinos Super League game, but before I do let’s put to bed the Wolfpack saga.

I was never convinced that Toronto would last the course but I do wonder about how it’s been handled.

One week they are telling us they are signing players from all over the world – but they can’t pay the players they have already – it’s quite a shambles and I don’t see a way back in the near future.

We restart against a club that’s been a bit of a bogey team over the last few years, Huddersfield Giants. You never can tell which team will turn up.

From looking on posts on social media the team look in good spirits, and have been training well, and are focused on picking up where we left off in March with the demolition of Toronto in our last game.

I hope the weather is back to ‘summer rugby’ standard and we can get the season off to a great start and put the last few months well behind us.

I’d like to say thanks to Peter Smith and the YEP for allowing us to carry on doing the jury in the sport’s absence.

ADAM ANDERSON

It is great knowing that this weekend we will finally have Super League back on our screens.

Hopefully soon we will be able to be in the stands.

We are pretty much where we were squad-wise when lockdown started, but we have Kruise Leeming and Tom Briscoe back which is going to be a massive boost.

Hopefully we will see some more youngsters in Sam Walters, Jarrod O’Connor and Tom Holroyd being handed first-team opportunities in the coming weeks.

It’s going to be very interesting seeing how we perform as we were going well before lockdown and hopefully the lads can bring that back.

I found the behind-the-scenes video on the club website very interesting this week and hearing how far Richard Agar goes into tactics and how they invited an RFL referee to show the team the new rules was a brilliant move.

Agar was massively underestimated when he became the Leeds Rhinos head coach but hopefully he will keep proving all the doubters wrong in the weeks to come.

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