Leeds Rhinos' young squad is going places says veteran Bodene Thompson
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The 32-year-old second-rower saw the rookies’ potential at first hand last year when coach Richard Agar rested most of his first-choice side for games before and after the Coral Challenge Cup semi-final and final.
The ‘Baby Rhinos’ gave a good account of themselves in defeats to Catalans Dragons, Warrington Wolves and St Helens before some of them were part of a winning team for the first time in a derby at Wakefield Trinity.
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Hide AdSam Walters, Jarrod O’Connor, Jack Broadbent, Corey Hall and Liam Tindall have all moved up Rhinos’ squad order after making their debut last year and Levi Edwards and Morgan Gannon were promoted straight from the scholarship into Leeds’ first-team squad.
Mikolaj Oledzki and Cameron Smith are established Super League players at the age of 22, Alex Sutcliffe was 21 when he played at Wembley last year and Tom Holroyd played nine times last year as a 19-year-old.
“I think the key thing is, people don’t realise how young this team is,” said Thompson who joined Leeds last August on loan from Toronto Wolfpack.
“There’s a lot of young boys in the team and, as they showed last year in the few stints they got, especially the really young boys coming through, they don’t take a backwards step.
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Hide Ad“They are going to take confidence from that - they will definitely want to step up in pre-season and put their hand forward when it comes to selection during the year.
“They are a hard-working young bunch and I have no doubt we will be seeing a lot of the young blokes again this year.”
Thompson was Cup-tied so missed out on Rhinos Wembley success against Salford Red Devils three months ago, but was ever-present in Super League following his debut against Wigan Warriors.
The New Zealander now has the security of a two-year contract and his sights are set on being part of the team next time Leeds reach a big game.
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Hide Ad“I wanted to go to the Grand Final and win - that is always the goal - but I was fairly happy,” he said of his first few months with Rhinos.
“It was an unsettled year for myself and my family, but it is what it is and, hopefully, this year is a bit better and a bit steadier.”
Thompson was in from day one of pre-season, two weeks ago and while it is no player’s favourite time of the year, he is relishing the opportunity to get some quality training done.
“It’ll seem like it goes pretty quick, but we’ll just take it day by day and keep working hard,” he said.
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Hide Ad“I haven’t had a pre-season for about four or five years so it will be good to get one under my belt.
“The first year I was over here, I didn’t get here until the day before Christmas, because of my visa and, over here, they start really early, so I missed quite a bit of training. Then the two years I was at Toronto, the coach - Brian McDermott - was really good about giving us time with our families.
“He just said ‘see you in January’, but now I have been in from the start and you definitely know during the season if you’ve got a good pre-season under your belt.
“It stands you in good stead for the year.”
Having been thrown in at the deep end last year, making his debut just a few days after arriving at Leeds, Thompson pledged to put the next two months to good use.
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Hide Ad“It will be good to get to know the boys, their strengths and weaknesses, what we can work on together and all that kind of stuff,” he pledged.
“It will be good to work on combinations, which players work together best, how you can best work together, stuff like that.
“I am looking forward to smashing it out at training and getting some running legs back, so it’ll be good.”
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