'It’s about having a good 30-man squad': Leeds Rhinos strong enough to pass French test says Cameron Smith

Matt Prior’s two-match ban left Mikolaj Oledzki as Rhinos’s only available front-rower for the trip to Toulouse Olympique, prompting a loan move for Wakefield Trinity’s Yusuf Aydin.

All Leeds’ props are fit, but Zane Tetevano, Tom Holroyd and Muizz Mustapha are serving bans, along with Prior.

Bodene Thompson, a second-rower who has started once at prop this year and featured there off the bench at times, is available following a two-match suspension and the likes of Sam Walters and James Donaldson will also have to play there this evening.

Losing another forward was a setback and Rhinos are also without both first-choice half-backs, Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer and captain/hooker Kruise Leeming, through injury.

Coach Rohan Smith was able to name only a 20-man squad, but his playing namesake reckons fringe men in the team will rise to the challenge.

“I don’t think people are filling in,” Cameron Smith insisted.

“It’s about having a good 30-man squad.

“In the best teams, whoever comes in just falls into the structure and they excel in that position as long as everyone else is doing their job around them.”

Smith will go into tomorrow’s game on a high after a man of the match performance in last Saturday’s 34-20 Magic Weekend win over Castleford Tigers.

“I took a few seconds, maybe a minute, in the changing room just to digest it,” he said.

“As a young Castleford lad, what more could you want than playing against my hometown club and putting in not only a good individual performance, but being part of a really good performance?

“Having that consistency in our game week to week, we put a marker down and hopefully it’ll keep going.”

Last week was Rhinos’ first win this season against an in-form play-off contender.

“It got us to within touching distance of the top six,” Smith noted.

“We said before we’d had big wins against other teams, but consistency is the key.

“To do that last week was a really good result, but we have to be straight back on it [today].

“We are a very focused group and we want to be in that top six so we will keep ticking the games off and from Monday our focus was on Toulouse.”

This evening will be Rohan Smith’s eighth game as coach and he has picked up four wins so far.

“Since he has come in there has been a real emphasis on being a collective group and ticking performances off,” Cameron Smith said.

“Not just being good individually, but letting everybody express themselves and all be on the same page.

“Rohan has really brought that to us.

“I feel like all the lads are pretty much on the same page and you can see it on the field.”

On a personal note, Smith is looking to build on impressive recent form as a ball-playing loose-forward.

He said: “Any opportunity I get to be the 13 for this club, I absolutely love playing there.

“I love playing with the lads as well so I want that starting spot and hopefully if I keep doing my thing and tipping in for the other lads, then that position will come.”