'It's ours to lose': Leeds Rhinos close in on second wheelchair RL treble

Having won all three major trophies last season, Rhinos have retained their Betfred Challenge Cup and Super League leaders’ titles and face London Roosters on Saturday in a play-off semi-final.

The game at Leeds Beckett University is open to supporters and kicks off at 3.30pm.

London finished fourth on the table and Rhinos will go into the tie as hot favourites, but captain/coach James Simpson has put his side on red alert.

“We’ve faced them three times outside the Cup and beaten them each time,” he said. “One time ran pretty close, but we managed to get the win.

“We are confident, but we don’t want to be cocky. If you are too cocky it will come back to bite you.

“Since the split in the league we’ve had the top four teams competing against each other again and I think they’ve lost every game, but they are still in the semi-final and they can still create an upset on the day.

“It’s knockout rugby, the fact they haven’t won any games in the top segment doesn’t mean they aren’t going to be gunning for it this week, but I think it is ours to lose, if anything.”

Of the prospect of another treble, Simpson stressed: “We are trying not to think about it. After last year’s success it is tough to keep the focus.

“We are taking it one game at a time, making sure we are having fun playing. The pressure on us at the beginning of the year made us a bit sloppy and we didn’t have a bit of form in the first few games.

“I think now we’ve gone back to playing what we enjoy and not putting pressure on ourselves, it is working.

“The success is coming from us relaxing a bit more, instead of being highly-strung like we were at the beginning of the year.

“Coming into the season having done the treble, there was pressure on us to perform and I think we let it get the better of us in the first couple of games.”