'Need to strengthen': Leeds Rhinos boss makes front-row admission as 2 miss Wigan Warriors clash

Rhinos go into today’s (Saturday) visit of Wigan Warriors without their two first-choice front-rowers, Mikolaj Oledzki and Tom Holroyd, because of injury. That means Justin Sangare and Sam Lisone will start the game, with rookie forwards Tom Nicholson-Watton and Ben Littlewood expected to be among the substitutes.

Arthur is adamant his men will step up against the side who went into round 21 top of Betfred Super League, but accepts prop is a recruitment priority for next term. Many fans felt Rhinos were a prop or two short going into this season and Arthur admitted: “Moving forward, I think the club needs to strengthen that area in our roster. We probably just need to be a bit stronger in the front-row, making sure we’ve got genuine starting front-rowers.”

Leeds’ pack will have their hands full this afternoon, even against a team playing their third game in 10 days. Holroyd is not expected to play again this year after suffering a concussion against Hull FC two months ago, in his first game back from a similar issue.

Oledzki could be sidelined for around a month with a rib injury, but Arthur insisted: “These things always open opportunities for other people to step up. It’s not just the middles, guys in the team around them need to step up to help them do their job better.

“We’ll have those two big guys starting in the front-row and then Tom, who has played only a handful of Super League games, will get some opportunity to come on and show us what he has got. It’s a good opportunity for both our back-rowers too.”

Leeds are also without captain Cameron Smith, who serves a one-game ban. Matt Frawley will skipper the team and Arthur admitted he wants more players to take on a leadership role. “Leadership is something we are slowly looking at now and working through,” he stated.

“My approach to how I want to coach and how we are running meetings and day-to-day business is trying to encourage the players to own more of it and get them to step out.

“There might be a few leaders there we haven’t exposed. It’s about trying to make them feel comfortable, because on the field, when they are under pressure and under fatigue, those guys have got to own it.

“We are trying to do things to encourage more guys to step up and own the moment at training and team meetings and hold each other accountable. That’s all part of leadership and growing as a leader.”