Rookie ‘half’ Callum McLelland looking forward to working with Sean Long

Long will join Rhinos as assistant-coach in place of James Webster who will focus on his role as head coach at Featherstone Rovers.

The former St Helens and Great Britain star started working with Rhinos today and McLelland said: “It is going to be massive.

“I look at people I’ve learned from and in the past it was Daryl Powell, Danny Orr and Ryan Sheridan [at Castleford], Rich [Agar, Rhinos’ coach] used to play half-back, so did James Webster and obviously Kev Sinfield and Rob Burrow – and I’ve done bits with Magsy [Danny McGuire].

“Now I’ll get to work on a day-to-day basis with one of the best English half-backs who ever lived. It is massively exciting, not just for me – I think he will bring another dimension to our attack and get us going forward a lot easier.

“I can’t wait, I think the full team are looking forward to it, not just half-backs.”

McLelland, 21, made his 11th appearance for Rhinos – and eighth of the season – in last Sunday’s 20-18 win at Wakefield Trinity.

It was his first victory in the starting side and he played the full game, more than half of it as the lone specialist half-back after Rob Lui was injured. Rhinos had lost 30-6 to Trinity three days earlier and McLelland said: “We wanted to get one back on them.

“It was a bit of a scrappy game and conditions didn’t help, but at the end of the day we got the job done, with a lot of sore bodies.”

The derby victory was Rhinos’ sixth game in 20 days and McLelland played in three of those.

“Bodene [Thompson] played something like 200 minutes in a week,” McLelland said. “I don’t think people realise how hard that is to do, to look after your body to the extent where you can give your all for 80 minutes time after time, with little training as well.

”With Covid protocols we can’t really get ice baths and do recovery properly at the stadium so the onus is on us to do it at home.”

McLelland added: “We all spoke before [Sunday’s] kick off about what it meant to us and, for me, it is massive to be able to get a few games in quick succession.

“It is what I’ve been asking for and, hopefully, I have repaid Rich and the coaching staff in a good way but it’s not just me, I think all the young lads have really had a crack and stepped up to the plate.

“Results haven’t been going our way, but you’ve got to look at the opposition we’ve been playing.

“We played the top teams so we’ve done it tough, but hats off to the young lads and the older boys who’ve had to back-up so many times.

“It sums this year up, it hasn’t been a great year regarding Covid but, as a squad and as a team and coaching staff, we set our goals at the start of the year and I think we are really pleased with how the season has gone.”