New Leeds Rhinos pack man Alex Mellor bowled over by team spirit at the Headingley-based club

Mellor made his first appearance for Rhinos as a substitute in the 34-10 pre-season victory over Bradford Bulls two days ago.

That was Rhinos’ second pre-season win, following a 30-4 victory over Wakefield Trinity on Boxing Day and Mellor feels the early signs for 2020 are positive.

“We are looking really good, not just on the field, but off the field as well,” insisted the 25-year-old former Bradford and Huddersfield Giants second-rower.

“It is a really, really close group of players.

“It’s one of the closest I’ve been in, I have only been here for a couple of months, but I think it shows on the field how close we are.

“We’ve not been together long, so imagine us after 12 months – we will be even closer and hopefully in that time we’ll achieve something.”

A full house of more than 19,500 for the Jamie Jones-Buchanan testimonial and Rob Burrow benefit match ensured an occasion Mellor will never forget.

“It was fantastic, I absolutely loved it,” said the pack man.

“It was my debut and I’ve come in and played in front of 20,000 people so it’s not coming in at the bottom.

“I’ve sort of gone straight in – you can’t get much better than that.

“What an experience to run out at Headingley when it’s absolutely jam packed and obviously the end speaks for itself, how meaningful it was.

“There was a lot of emotional people which was nice to see.”

Naturally all the pre-match attention was on Burrow and the reunion of some of his former team-mates who came on for the closing stages. Rhinos, though, still had a job to do and the game was an important part of preparations for the new Betfred Super League season which begins at home to Hull on Sunday, February 2.

“We just treated it like a normal game,” Mellor insisted.

“Rich [Agar, Rhinos’ coach] was really good in that, he sort of took the emotion out of the preparation.

“We were allowed to get emotional during the game, but the preparation side of it was just like a normal game.”

Of his own performance, Mellor said: “It was all right, just a bit of a break-in, get your lungs and your legs going.”

Rhinos spent most of last week in Spain on a warm-weather training camp and Mellor described that as “brilliant”.

He said: “I really enjoyed it. It was something different for me, my first one.

“It was good to get a bit of sun and to be together for five days as fantastic.”