Kruise Leeming hails Leeds Rhinos' youngsters as 'best in Super League'

Leeds Rhinos'  youngsters are unrivaled in Betfred Super League, England Knights hooker Kruise Leemng reckons.
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Seventeen-year-old second-rower Morgan Gannon was Leeds’ official man of the match in last Friday’s 18-12 win over Huddersfield Giants and there were also impressive contributions from forwards Jarrod O’Connor, Sam Walters and Tom Holroyd, all 20 and half-back Callum McLelland, 21.

Harry Newman is a member of the England squad at 21 and Leeming insisted: “I don’t want to be biased in saying this and I might be wrong, but I think we have got the best crop of young players in the whole Super League.”

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Rhinos aren’t in a situation where they can drip feed players out of the academy into a strong senior side, who have been winning every week.

Kruise Leeming's progress is halted during last Friday's game against Giants. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.Kruise Leeming's progress is halted during last Friday's game against Giants. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.
Kruise Leeming's progress is halted during last Friday's game against Giants. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.

Youngsters have been thrown in, at times several of them in one game, when Leeds have been struggling with injuries and have had to sink or swim in an inexperienced side.

“It hasn’t been like ‘there’s no kind of pressure, just go and bed in’,” Leeming said.

“It has been like ‘we are giving you a game because we’ve got nobody else and we need you to perform at a really high standard because we need to win’.

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“The pressure they’ve been put under and the way they’ve dealt with it, Ganno [Gannon] looked like a seasoned pro’ out there [on Friday].

“He was really good, I think we’ve got the best crop of young players coming through and it’s really exciting for Leeds.”

At 25, Leeming is hardly a has-been himself.

Now in his second season with Rhinos he has been in impressive form, particularly since being called into the Combined Nations All Stars side which beat England in June.

He has had to fill in at half-back in some games and said he is happy with the way he is going.

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“I think I am starting to find my feet and take on a bit more leadership at what was a new club to me,” he said

“It feels more like a family to me, the lads have made me feel so welcome.

“It feels like I have been here 10 years now, I know everyone.

“I can walk through the backroom and speak to everyone and obviously I know all my teammates as well.

“I am enjoying my rugby and I am feeling fit.

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“I knew last year, when I did my knee, it was going to be a struggle because I am a player who needs to train and to have a really good pre-season behind him.

“That’s like 99 per cent of players; there’s that one per cent who don’t really train that hard and can just go out and play really well.

“After having a full pre-season this year and getting on to the field after working really hard on my extras and staying really fit and really strong, I knew I had set myself up to give myself the best chance.

“That doesn’t mean you are going to play well, but it gives you the best chance to do so and I am reaping the rewards from that, I think.”

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Leeming was “very sore and tired”, but in good spirits after the victory over Giants.

And he stressed it was the boost to Rhinos’ win percentage which delighted him most, rather than getting one over his former club.

“It didn’t really cross my mind last week,” he said of facing the side he left to sign for Rhinos.

“It has been nearly two years since I actually joined Leeds so I am not too fussed about it.

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“Obviously, Huddersfield would be a close club to my heart and did a lot for me, but my heart is with Leeds now.

“I have moved over and there’s only three or four players there now that I played with when I was there.

“They’ve had a turnaround of players, a different coach, a turnaround of backroom staff - it didn’t really cross my mind until after the game a load of people said ‘you must be happy about that’.

"Then I was, but I was more happy just for the win.

“Be it Huddersfield or anyone, we just needed to win.”

Two of Giants’ tries came in the final seven minutes, after Rhinos had been reduced to 12 men with Zane Tetevano in the sin-bin.

Leeming described it as a “really spirited performance”.

He said: “I thought everybody worked really hard.

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“Huddersfield are not a terrible team, people look at where they are in the table, but they work really hard for each other and they are a tough team to break down and to score past.

“They are struggling a little bit with injuries, we are struggling a lot with injuries and we had to dig deep to get the win.

"It could have gone either way, but I think we were the better team for most of it.”

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