Leeds Rhinos coach reveals pre-season progress, hails referees and looks ahead to Bradford Bulls derby

Rhinos began training at the start of November and have had one warm-up game so far, a 41-22 win over Wakefield Trinity on Boxing Day. A mainly second-string side will visit Bradford Bulls tomorrow (Sunday) and Smith will field his strongest-available lineup against Hull KR in James Donaldson’s testimonial game at AMT Headingley on Sunday, February 4.

Rhinos’ Betfred Super League campaign kicks off at home to Salford Red Devils 12 days after that and Smith stressed the real test will come when competitive matches start. But assessing pre-season so far, he insisted “I am pleased with the amount of progress we’ve made.”

He said: “I am pleased the English core of players have created an environment for the new players to walk into and feel at home quickly. We have a lot of important players who are new to the club, [they] have fitted in well and feel like they’ve been here a lot longer than two and a half months.

“I am pleased with that aspect and I think we are in decent condition at this point in time, but there’s still three weeks to go to round one and plenty of work to be done. We are not tapering off yet, we are still striving to get ready for round one.”

After a poor start, Rhinos showed good signs in the second half against Wakefield, but Smith won’t be comparing tomorrow’s performance to the one more than a month ago. He added: “It’s two vastly different teams, the Boxing Day game to this one, but I am looking forward to seeing where those who are playing are at. We’ll be playing on a small pitch, it’s likely to be muddy in late January, so we are looking forward to a good, hard game of footy with plenty of strong contact and getting ready for the season ahead.”

Facing a good Championship side will be valuable experience for Leeds’ younger players, Smith reckons. “They [Bulls] have already played a couple of games so they will be well-conditioned,” he warned. “We’re looking forward to giving our guys a taste of it.”

The match is also a second opportunity for Leeds to play under this year’s rule interpretations intended to clean up play around the ruck. So far, the Rhinos boss has been encouraged by what he has seen. He said: “I think from what’s happened so far - I have watched most of the high-level Championship friendlies - it has been cleaner and it is flowing better. There’s less niggle and less irritation in the crowd.

“I think it is what needed to happen for the good of the game. I think having penalties in a game isn’t ideal, but having a mess around the ruck doesn’t make for a good game either. The referees will find the right balance and I think they are committed to making our game a better spectacle. That’s really important as the game strives to be a better product, which will help get more money in the next TV deal.”