Leeds Rhinos v York Knights latest team news as Brad Arthur backs 'good young player of the future'
Coach Brad Arthur has backed young winger Riley Lumb to bounce back after losing his place in Leeds Rhinos’ team.
Lumb played in Rhinos’ first two games of the season, but has not been named in the initial 21-man squad for tonight’s visit of York Knights when Fijian international Maika Sivo will make his long-awaited debut. Though Lumb, 21, had a tough time during Rhinos’ opening Betfred Super League defeat by Leigh Leopards last week, Arthur reckons he has a bright future.
“He’s a tough kid, he understands it’s just part of it,” he said of Lumb’s omission. “He has got a couple of things to work on, he is a good young player of the future moving forward. He got a couple of things wrong [against Leigh], but unfortunately that’s the business we are in and each week is vital. The guys have to perform on a weekly basis.”
Sivo scored 104 tries in 115 NRL appearances for Parramatta Eels, under Arthur’s coaching, but spent his first season at Leeds on the casualty list after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury in a trial match 13 months ago. Arthur admitted: “Expectations aren’t too great. He is going to be down on his fitness, he hasn’t played for a while.”
But he stressed: “I am proud of how hard he has worked. I gave him some targets around his weight when we did the jerseys at the start of the year. I gave him the option he can either get number two or number 22 - but he had to get under 112 kilos. As soon as he did that I said he had to be on 110 and he has now weighed in at 108.8. He has done really well. He is not a bloke who carries body fat, but he’s just a big man. I think he is going to be able to do a better job at a lower weight.”
Props Jeremiah Mata’utia and Keenan Palasia, scrum-half Jake Connor and loose-forward Cameron Smith are also set to play against York after injury. Arthur added: “Some of them might not be 100 per cent, but they are good enough to get out there and play. They have done plenty of training and they are not at risk.”
Pre-season signing Mata’utia featured in Rhinos’ Boxing Day trial game against Wakefield Trinity before damaging a knee in training. It will be his first match at the top level, after previously playing in Australia’s second-tier Queensland Cup. “As we saw in the trial, he carries the ball strong, he’s very good in that area,” Arthur said.
“There’s some work-ons we needed to see from him defensively. Since he has been injured it has been hard for him, but he has trained hard and he will get his chance. He is a big, physical man and we want to see him be physical. With the speed of the game he is going to have to make good choices around his effort when he gets tired.”
Prop Presley Cassell also drops out from last week’s team. Knights could be unchanged from last week’s shock win against Hull KR, though John Sagaga has replaced ex-Leeds back Jack Smith in their initial squad.
Leeds Rhinos: from Miller, Sivo, Newman, Hall, Croft, Connor, O’Connor, Holroyd, Watkins, McDonnell, Palasia, Hankinson, Jenkins, O’Neill, Smith, Mata’utia, Levi, N McCormack, Littlewood, Nicholson-Watton, G Brown.
York Knights: from Mata’afa, Jones-Bishop, Wood, Galeano, Hingano, Harris, Martin, McShane, Vaughan, Griffin, Dee, Thompson, Balmforth, Va’a, Sangare, Richardson, Field, Buchanan, Sagaga, Williams, Vuniyayawa.
Referee: James Vella (Sydney). Kick-off: Friday, 8pm.