Leeds Rhinos prop Cooper Jenkins confirms starting aim, makes 'better every week' pledge

Jenkins was 18th man for Rhinos’ Betfred Super League opener against Wakefield Trinity two months ago, but has played in all their other games, starting six of his seven appearances so far. The 23-year-old is still a rookie at the top level, having joined Rhinos from Queensland Cup side Norths Devils, but reckons he is adjusting to the higher standard and contrasting way the game is played in Europe, compared to Australia.

“It has taken a couple of games to get used to, it is a totally different style of footy over here,” Jenkins admitted. “There’s a lot more line speed, but I feel like I am settling in and hopefully I’ll keep building on my minutes and get more minutes in my legs. It is a big step up from playing reserve grade, which I was doing last year. I feel like I am settling in pretty good and doing my job.”

Rhinos have effectively been playing with three props since captain Cameron Smith was injured during the Super League round two win at Salford Red Devils in February. Keenan Palasia moved to loose-forward, with Jenkins starting alongside Mikolaj Oledzki in the front-row.

He stressed: “I pride myself on starting, I love being a starting front-rower and I enjoy going up against other senior forward packs. We’ve played some great packs over the last few weeks and I feel like it has been good experience for me, playing against them and doing a pretty good job. This year is a learning experience, but I am in a position where I need to be doing my job every week as well.”

Leeds’ forwards have noticeably gone up a gear over the past few games and Jenkins reckons there were more encouraging signs against Warrington Wolves last Friday, despite the 16-14 defeat. Rhinos led by 10 points going into the final quarter and the hosts’ winning try came after Palasia had been controversially sin-binned for alleged shoulder contact.

“As middles we are striving to get over the packs we are playing against and I think we are doing a pretty good job,” Jenkins stated. “Hopefully we can keep that going all year and keep building.”

Rhinos’ early exit from the Challenge Cup means they have no game this weekend, so Jenkins stressed they’ll be working hard on the areas which let them down against Warrington. “It was a tough one to take,” he admitted. “Physically we were up for it - a couple of bad errors caught us and some concentration, but there was a lot of good effort.

“We have really been going after the physicality in the last couple of weeks and I think that has been working for us. It’s just errors at crucial points in the game that killed us, which is disappointing. It was the first time we’ve had the same spine in back to back games this year so things are clicking a bit more and every week we’ll keep getting better.”

Now Wembley is off the agenda, Rhinos’ sights are set on a top-six finish in Super League and qualification for the end of season play-offs. Jenkins insisted: “As everyone can see, we’ve got the effort and we’ve got the team to do it. If everything had clicked [against Warrington] we could have put a couple more tries on before they came back. There’s just a couple of things to fix up and we’ll keep getting better every week.”