Leeds Rhinos' James McDonnell makes 'every team's beatable' vow as St Helens clash begins Super League run-in

Rhinos visit champions St Helens, who are third in Betfred Super League, on Friday before a home clash with second-placed Leigh Centurions nine days later.

Saints are backing up six days after a bruising Challenge Cup semi-final defeat by Leigh, who will be less than a week away from Wembley when they travel to Leeds.

Leeds haven’t played for two weeks, since a home golden-point defeat by Hull KR and second-rower James McDonnell says they know the importance of the next couple of fixtures.

“We’ve had a bit of time off to refresh after the Hull KR game, but we’ve been back in for a while now, all focused towards the back end of the year and for these next two games in particular,” the former Wigan Warriors man said.

“We’re looking at this two-week period as a little block we want to knock off, get some results there and carry that into the business end of the year where we want to be performing and making that top-six.”

With Saints missing some players and Leigh likely to have the final in the back of their minds, it is an opportunity for Rhinos to pick up two wins which could set them up for top-six finish.

But McDonnell insisted: “We aren’t looking too much at what went on in the semi-final or the team that might come out against us this Friday.

“It is going to be a strong Saints team, regardless and we are really looking to kick-start the back end of the campaign. We can control what we can control, so there’s no point looking outside of that.”

Rhinos will have to be better than they were against Hull KR, McDonnell admits. They had enough opportunities to win that game, but execution let them down and he vowed: “We’ve taken some big learning points away from that.

“We have looked at those and put them into practice at training - those last minute of the game, golden-point scenarios.

“We’ve already been in two very similar situations with Saints before this year. It’s not that we are planning for it, but it’s good to have that preparation right and ready to go if needed, on Friday or if any other game goes down to the wire.”

Rhinos won by a last-gasp drop goal at Saints in March before having the tables turned in golden-point extra-time two months later, after McDonnell was incorrectly sent-off in the closing stages.

“It’s two teams who really come out to play,” McDonnell said. “I am sure it is going to be a great game and being in those situations before - and Hull KR being a big learning curve for us - I think it will put us in good stead.”

McDonnell made his debut in the 25-24 victory at Saints and that result will give Rhinos confidence for the rematch, he reckons.

He said: “We see every team as beatable. We have ticked off a lot of the top teams already this year and maybe under-performed against some teams we should be beating.

“We’ve beaten everyone in the top-six bar Leigh and we’ve only played them once. We know what we are capable of as a team when we are on and if we concentrate on what we do on the pitch, we can pretty much take care of it ourselves.”

Leeds are two points behind sixth-placed Hull KR, with a better for and against, so will move into the play-offs if they win and the Robins lose at home to Castleford Tigers on Friday.

“That’s the bare minimum now, to be getting into that top-six come the end of the year,” McDonnell stated.

“We’ve got eight games left to do that and we want to keep ticking off games and performances and getting wins in these coming weeks.”

On a personal note, McDonnell has been a revelation since joining Leeds in pre-season, scoring four tries in 17 appearances, all as a starting second-rower.

“Consistency is the major one for me, with this being my first full season in Super League,” he reflected.

“That is what has been important to me for a while now, not dipping below that seven-eight out of 10 standard each week and adding to that where I can, working on different aspects of my game. My consistency has been really good for me this year and I need to build on top of that.”