Missing Jake Connor, golden George Brown & don't slaughter young players: latest Leeds Rhinos talking points

Expectations were raised following last year’s fifth-place finish in Betfred Super League and the two performances so far - a 25-12 win at Widnes Vikings in the Betfred Challenge Cup and 26-14 round one loss to Leigh Leopards - have been far from convincing. It is very early days, but Leeds fans will want to see evidence Rhinos can compete for silverware this year. Here’s five talking points.

1: Golden Brown. Take five front line players out and any team will struggle, but Rhinos are particularly reliant on Man of Steel Jake Connor. The game at Leigh was the third Betfred Super League fixture the scrum-half has missed since joining Leeds at the start of last season and they have lost them all, scoring only 28 points in the process.

Rhinos need him back as quickly as possible. Having trained all pre-season with a spine of full-back Lachie Miller, stand-off Brodie Croft and scrum-half Connor, losing one of them before round one was inevitably disruptive and points are hard to come by when their player of the year isn’t on the field.

On the positive side, George Brown, who turns 19 on Friday, now has 80 minutes of Super League rugby under his belt at half-back and that experience will be invaluable. He showed some nice touches with the ball and defended strongly, including one big hit on Leigh dangerman Edwin Ipape. He’ll need to bide his time, but he looks like a future star.

2: Lumb to the slaughter. Social media wasn’t kind to Riley Lumb after he had a tough night at Leigh, making a couple of errors which led to tries for the home side. Everyone wants to see young players given a chance, but that means being tolerant when they make mistakes, which they inevitably will.

Lumb had an electric start to his first team career, but hit a rough patch midway through last season and lost his place after crossing for 11 tries in Leeds’ first 17 games. The 21-year-old winger, who scored a scorcher in the Challenge Cup win at Widnes Vikings two weeks ago, is a long way from the finished article, but he is contracted until the end of 2029, under a deal signed last April and shouldn’t be written off after one bad game.

3: Maika difference. It is a big week for Rhinos’ injured players. Ash Handley has already been ruled out of Friday’s visit of York Knights, but at least five others have a good chance of being crossed off the casualty list. Coach Brad Arthur has made it clear he doesn’t want to travel to Las Vegas, for the clash against Hull KR on February 28, with a host of players who haven’t got a game under their belt, so they’ll be keen to get out on the field this week.

It looks like Maika Sivo, signed from Parramatta Eels ahead of last season but yet to make his debut because of an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered 13 months ago, could feature against York. If so, he will add formidable experience and strike power to Rhinos’ backline. It will take him a while to find his feet, but he touched down 104 times in 115 NRL games for Parramatta and if he can recapture that form, there won’t be many better try scorers in the competition. It’s six seasons since a Leeds player scored 20 or more and that target is well within Sivo’s capability.

4: Bird latest. Rhinos remain hopeful of sealing a deal to bring former State of Origin player Jack Bird to the club within the next few days. Everything is agreed, but paperwork needs to be cleared before Bird can fly to England. If everything goes to plan, he could arrive at Leeds next week when the first team are in Vegas. He will train with the reserves and could be in line for a debut in Super League round four, at home to Castleford Tigers on Sunday, March 8.

Rhinos are taking 21 players to America. Depending on how that goes, Arthur may rotate his squad for the Cas game which could mean some youngsters getting an opportunity even if most of the current injuries have cleared up.

5: Ref justice. There were 17 penalties in Rhinos’ game at Leigh, eight of them to Leeds. Rhinos received five set restarts to the hosts’ one.

As expected, referees’ attempts to speed up the ruck led to a flurry of both across round one, but it will be worth the early season pain if the message gets across. That said, how much time defenders are given in the tackle is apparently being left up to individual referees and so is likely to vary from game to game. Smart coaches will take note and adjust their team’s approach, depending on who’s in the middle. More consistency is needed.