Leeds Rhinos coach makes 'little experience' admission, vows to give young kids a Super League chance

Rhinos could field a full-strength back division for Friday’s season-opener at home to Salford Red Devils, but Smith admits his reserves at full-back, in the three-quarters and halves are untested at the top level. With injuries inevitable during a 10-month campaign, some of them will get a chance and the coach reckons pre-season - at training and in matches - has shown they are ready.

Eighteen year olds Jack Smith and Ben Littlewood; Ned McCormack and Riley Lumb, who are both 19 and 17-year-old Fergus McCormack played in all three of Rhinos’ first team practice games without yet having made a Super League appearance. Several other teenagers have trained with the full-time squad and Smith pledged: “Our front-line crew will be ready to compete and I think will get better as the season goes on, then we’ve got a lot of youthful players who are our back-up players.

Some of them are going to emerge as starting players within the next couple of years and there’s even more kids behind that. [Head of youth] John Bastian and [head of talent identification] Simon Bell have done a great job bringing in good kids, from good families, who have also got talent.

“There’s a lot in the club at the moment and it is our job to bring them through, but they need to have an experienced team to look up to and to protect them. Bringing them in gradually is the plan. We will see a few emerge this year, I’ve no doubt and there will be more in the following seasons.”

Behind Smith’s likely first-choice 17, winger Derrell Olpherts is Rhinos’ only experienced specialist back. Smith admitted: “In the backs, there’s very little experience in our backup players. You can’t be stacked with experience in every position, it is how it is.

“With a roster it takes a long time to build the depth you would maybe desire, but there’s plenty of talent in that depth and I have no problem throwing the kids in and giving them an opportunity, given they are ready. Some of them are certainly ready to compete and do well at Super League, rather than being thrown in because somebody else is injured.”

Smith felt the greenhorns given game time over the past two months all met the challenge. “They are only pre-season games - they are not Super League - but they have been good hard battles,” Smith said. “A lot of people in and around the club have been surprised by the progress these guys have made.

“I am not surprised because I see them each day, but they have gone out there and shown what they are capable of, which is really exciting. When Mikolaj [Oledzki] came off against Hull KR and a young player went on in his place, the team didn’t suffer. That’s a good place to be, where we can give the senior players a rest when they need one and give the young kids experience at the same time.

“It is about whether they are physically and mentally ready to handle the situation. There’s also sometimes a difference between playing one game and being asked to play week on week. We will be strategic with that and certainly be taking the long-term approach with those kids, rather than throwing them to the wolves too soon.”