Leeds Rhinos v Salford Red Devils: We’ll beat the hangover blues insists Kruise Leeming

Rhinos go into tomorrow’s ‘home’ game against Salford Red Devils, behind closed doors at Warrington, on the back of successive defeats.

Their only win since Betfred Super League resumed after coronavirus was a golden-point victory over Leeming’s former club, Huddersfield Giants and they have yet to play well in more than brief patches.

“I just think we have got a little bit of a hangover from the lockdown and a little bit of a hangover from the new rules,” is Leeming’s assessment of what has gone wrong.

But he insisted: “We have watched video and we are not too far off.

“There’s just some effort areas we need to fix up on and I think we will get there.”

A knee injury kept Leeming out of action before lockdown, but he made his debut against Huddersfield and got a first start in the loss to Wigan Warriors two weeks ago.

“I am really enjoying being out there,” he reflected. “The results haven’t gone our way, though we got a good result against my former club, but personally, I am loving every minute of it.

“I am cherishing it more than I did before, because I’ve never really had a big injury before.

“Now every time I am out there I know what it’s like to be on the sideline and I feel for some of the boys that are injured. Hopefully they get back quick.”

Leeming needed surgery after damaging a knee in Leeds’ final training session before Christmas last year.

The shutdown gave him extra time to recover and he insisted: “It is good, [but] I am still getting my running legs back.

“My lungs have come back, my strength and my fitness, but I just need my game fitness.

“It will just come through, I have played maybe 100-120 minutes of Super League and you can’t replicate that in training.

“You do your best, but there’s nothing like game day. Just playing games and I should be back to full fitness, but I feel good.”

Leeming returned to a different game, with new rules making the sport faster and more non-stop than before the pandemic.

Players are having to dig deeper, particularly those in the middle of the field, but Leeming said: “It’s good – it has brought a new wave of interest into the game, everyone’s saying how fast it is.

“You have got to be super fit or you get found out.

“Across the board, if you look at every other sport, you have got to be a supreme athlete to play the game, so why should rugby league be any different?

“Maybe in the past you could get away with just being really big, or just being really strong, or just being really fast, but now – with these new rules – you need every aspect of being a supreme athlete.

“I just think it makes the game better, that’s how professional sport should be.

“If it was easy, everyone would do it.”

Rhinos have taken longer than some teams to adjust to the new-style of game, but have had two weeks to prepare for tomorrow.

“I know they are Super League games, but normally after such a long layoff you have trial games that get you up to speed,” Leeming said.

“You have three or four trial games and then you start finding your groove. It has almost been like pre-season games, these three games – not to mention, we have lost against two of the best teams in the competition, Saints and Wigan.

“We are not too far off. We would rather have played those games on the back of the four games we’d won and the break came at the wrong time for us, but it’s one of those things. Everyone’s had to deal with it.”

Leeming stressed: “If we want to win the Grand Final and win the league we need to be beating those teams, but I am sure we are heading in the right direction.

“We are quietly confident.”

Rhinos pulled off a 22-8 victory at Salford six months ago, but the Red Devils have won their last two matches, either side of lockdown.

“All three games I have played, every time I have spoken to anyone they’ve said ‘this is going to be a tough game’,” Leeming recalled. “It is, every single game now.

“If you don’t turn up absolutely ready to play and 100 per cent, you are going to lose – no matter who you are.

“Everyone can beat everyone. It is going to be a tough game and that’s what you want.

“I think Salford’s going to be a good test for us, to see where we are.

“They need to kick start their season, we need to kick start ours, so we’ll see what Salford have got for us.”

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