‘Pleasant surprises’ in store says Leeds Rhinos head coach Richard Agar

Midweek matches will be on the cards as clubs squeeze three-quarters of a season into four, five or six months.

At this stage, it seems likely the competition will return in August, with the Grand Final held in either November, December or January.

There has been no rugby since mid-March but, with a hectic schedule on the cards, Agar admitted: “We will need our squad.”

Rhinos have 36 full-time players and several who have yet to feature for Leeds this year impressed on dual-registration with Featherstone Rovers before the shutdown.

“By the looks of it we are going to have a fair amount of games to play in a short period of time,” Agar said.

“We are confident in our young players, some of them have played well at Fev and it would be a great experience for them.

“We have no dramas, we’re not worried about it – we are comfortable it will give more young players an opportunity and we might get some pleasant surprises.”

Agar conceded it is difficult to plan “until we know what the fixture list is”. He added: “We will address it when it comes. I think it will be on a week-to-week basis and we’ll see who has got niggles and who’s fatigued and all that.

“What I do know is blokes like Tommy Holroyd, Callum McLelland, Alex Sutcliffe, Muizz Mustapha, Jack Broadbent – we have no dramas in playing those guys if and when the situation comes up.

“We might find out about them. It will be a different sort of comp’, it isn’t going to be a normal comp’ over 10 months. It is going to have a very different look and feel to it, but we are confident in our kids and happy to play them when that time comes.”

The long break has eased Rhinos’ injury situation. Tom Briscoe is now off the casualty list after recovering from the anterior cruciate ligament damage he suffered last August.

He will be available for selection when the competition returns and Agar reported fellow knee injury victims Kruise Leeming and Liam Sutcliffe have made good progress following surgery.

“Kruise is coming along really well,” he said. “If we get back when expected he should be there or thereabouts.

“Liam Sutcliffe has recovered really well; his was short term.”

Jack Walker suffered damage to a foot in Rhinos’ big win over Warrington Wolves in February but, so far, the following week’s defeat of Toronto Wolfpack is the only game he has missed.

“He has had an operation,” Agar said. “I think he has to have some screws taken out of his foot soon, which is progress, but they are struggling to get hold of surgeons because of the current situation.

“Then he’s into re-hab’ and he can start running. I am not sure he will be back in time.

“But he won’t be too far away either.”

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