Leeds Rhinos coach Dave Furner learns lots from valuable match minutes

Kallum Watkins returned from a long-term knee injury and scored Leeds’ opening try in his testimonial game.

“He got some game time and when he scored that try that was the Kallum of old,” Furner said of Rhinos’ captain.

“There’s a lot of pleasing things to take out of it and I’ve said that to the players.

“It was a trial game and we wanted to put a performance on and we wanted to win for Kallum, but we will certainly take some learning from it.”

Tigers led 18-4 after half an hour and 18-10 at the interval, but Leeds did most of the attacking in the second half.

Furner admitted they need to be better in the opening stages of matches and more clinical when chances come.

He said: “Our start wasn’t great.

“We had some opportunities at the end of the game and we had a really good second half I thought.

“Our defence was a lot better in the second half.

“We gave ourselves an opportunity, but we didn’t seal it.”

Furner said he is still looking at “connections and combinations” in his team.

“Round one is two weeks away,” he added.

“Castleford are a good team and it was a good opportunity to see what our players are like.

“I wanted to get some minutes into some players and there were times when we created some opportunities, but we didn’t score the points.”

Liam Sutcliffe, named in the second-row, hobbled off in the second half.

He confirmed he “rolled” an ankle and will discover the extent of the damage today, but is hopeful the injury is not serious.

“He found himself out in the centres, which he has done before,” Furner said.

“I want to try and narrow down what his role and his position is in this team.

“I see him on the edge. I think he is quite handy there.”

The coach confirmed he is “close” to knowing his 17 for the trip to Warrington Wolves in Betfred Super League round one on Saturday, February 2.