Leeds Rhinos v Huddersfield Giants - Coach Richard Agar’s not planning beyond the ‘next game’

Rhinos should have played twice in the past nine days, but games against Wakefield Trinity and Catalans Dragons were both called off after opposition players tested positive for coronavirus.

Placings on the Betfred Super League table are now being decided on win percentage rather than points and it is looking increasingly unlikely all 11 clubs will complete the full 22-round campaign – which has already been shortened from 29.

With matches in hand becoming a burden rather than an advantage, Agar’s aim is to “win as many games as we can, while we can”.

Chief executive Gary Hetherington has said the club “want to play every game”, but that might not be possible – particularly if Rhinos go all the way in the Coral Challenge Cup.

Agar stressed he will let the administrators deal with those issues and insisted: “I am not looking more than a week or two in advance at the moment.”

He said: “It is changing so fast, we just know at some point we are going to get some periods of three games in a week and we will use our squad.

“Until then I have got a lot of trust in those guys [director of rugby Kevin Sinfield and Hetherington] to come up with good decisions and fight our corner on any suitable dates.”

Leeds will look to complete a second-successive win, following a 50-12 conquering of Salford Red Devils almost two weeks ago, when they face Huddersfield Giants at St Helens tomorrow.

Giants have suffered four straight defeats since Super League resumed last month – including a 27-26 loss to Rhinos in both sides’ first game after coronavirus.

Huddersfield, who led 26-6 with 17 minutes left that afternoon, could have a host of key players back from injury tonight and Agar is reading nothing into their recent form.

“It’s not too long since we played Huddersfield, but since then they’ve had different half-back combinations pretty much every week, different full-backs every week – there’s certainly been some differences in their games,” he pointed out.

“Against us they dominated for 60 minutes and against Warrington I thought they competed really well.

“They’ve probably under-performed in a couple of games so it has been a mixed bag and that makes them difficult to prepare for.

“We are still unaware of their team situation so we have very much put the focus on what we felt was a strong step in the right direction against Salford.

“We have been littered with errors over the first three weeks and against Salford we managed to simplify it and play the new style of game a bit better than we had been.”

Rhinos scored nine tries in a clinical attacking display last time out, but Agar warned they still aren’t where they want to be.

“We know we have got a bit of work to do, after the opening two or three rounds,” he stressed.

“It has been about building on what we are doing in training.

“We have looked at different elements in the games, some of the trends emerging and some of the data.

“We have made some adjustments and it has been more of a continuation of that.

“We want to build on the good performance last time and keep in our game the parts we undoubtedly improved on against Salford.”

Agar admitted he was “frustrated and disappointed” not to play last week, but feels his players have benefited from some more work in training and extra time to get over minor injuries.

“I think across the board we weren’t too bad, but at the same time we’ve got a few guys who did need a bit extra,” he said of Rhinos’ fitness since Super League resumed.

“If the cloud has a silver lining, it certainly has helped two or three individuals in our squad and [given players a chance to] get over a few little bumps and bruises.

“At the moment we have got a pretty fit and healthy squad - we have got 30 players training – and we should be coming into this game pretty fresh.”

Meanwhile, Rhinos have revealed a new, long-term partnership with UK-based sports manufacturer OXEN as the club’s new technical kit supplier.

The initial 10-year deal will see OXEN produce the Rhinos men’s and women’s playing, training and leisurewear from next season.

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