Leeds Rhinos have sights set on the top four, insists Mellor

After tomorrow Rhinos face Wakefield Trinity in back-to-back fixtures at St Helens and Mobile Rocket Stadium, on Thursday and Sunday, before a rematch with Tigers at Headingley the following Friday.

Catalans Dragons are in pole position to claim the last spot in the semi-finals, if they can reach the qualifying mark of 15 games, but Mellor insisted: “Our aim is the top-four.”

Coach Richard Agar will field a strong side tomorrow evening for the first time since Leeds won the Coral Challenge Cup nine days ago and Mellor said: “Wembley was nice, but that has gone now and we’ll reflect on that at the end of the season.

“The celebration is done, we are just concentrating on the league now and I think we have got a really good shot at it.”

Rhinos are fifth in the table after losing three of their last four league games, all when a young side was selected before the Challenge Cup semi-final and either side of the decider.

“It is quite a challenge, with us getting to the Challenge Cup final,” Mellor accepted.

“We have had to field quite a young team in some games, but we have spoken about the next four games as being winnable.

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“Playing Cas twice and Wakey twice, it means when you are doing your review of the game it turns into a bit of a preview as well.

“There’s not much that changes, you just have to alter some bits. If we can get a couple of wins first and then take it from there, four wins would put us in a good position on the table.”

Leeds’ full-strength line-up has not lost since a defeat by Wigan Warriors in August and Mellor said they are confident they can beat anyone on their day.

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“As soon as it gets to knockout rugby league it is anyone’s game,” he added.

“We know we can compete with anyone and if we can get into the top-four semi-finals it is anyone’s game and we know we can turn it on when we need to.”

But Mellor said Rhinos won’t be taking either Tigers or Trinity for granted.

He warned: “They are both good teams, just form hasn’t gone with them as of late.

“That is not something we can look at, they are two good sides and we have got to field our best team and play our best to win. We are not looking past these games, we are taking one game at a time and hopefully we will tick some wins off along the way.”

Being Cup winners will put an extra spring in Rhinos’ step, but Mellor admitted: “It is strange, certainly for me it hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

He said: “I have been sat looking at the medal, but it hasn’t really sunk in what it is for. Everyone’s really happy and buzzing and we had a good week last week, getting us back into the swing of things and over the final. The mood is really good, but we are putting it [the Cup win] to the back of our minds and we’ll celebrate then, hopefully along with the Grand Final.”

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