Liam Tindall: Leeds Rhinos winger hoping to retain his place for Super League visit of Catalans Dragons

The 20-year-old was chosen to replace Tonga international David Fusitu’a on the right wing for last week’s trip to Wigan Warriors.

His performance was a rare positive from Rhinos’ 34-12 defeat and he has retained his place in the initial squad for tomorrow’s home game against Catalans Dragons.

With Fusitu’a again ruled out because of concussion - and Rhinos having a doubt over their other first-choice winger Ash Handley - Tindall looks set to continue in the team for what would be only his fifth Betfred Super League game.

Having made just one substitute appearance last year - following three starts in 2020 - Tindall’s call-up at DW Stadium was a surprise, to him as much as anyone else, but rewarded an impressive pre-season.

“It came around a lot sooner than I thought it would,” admitted Tindall, who made his debut at home to Catalans in September, 2020.

“Because everybody was fit for the start of the season, I was thinking I’d probably be out on loan before I saw any game time [at Leeds], but it came around pretty quick.”

Outlining his approach, he added: “Overall, I think I had a good game.

“I know these opportunities don’t come around that often and I didn’t want to walk away thinking ‘I could have put more effort in there, I could have done this or done that’.

“I just went out and worked as hard as I could.”

Tindall scored three tries during an eight-match loan spell at League One side Doncaster last term and reckons he is a better player now than 12 months ago. “Definitely,” he said.

“I think I got a lot of confidence from playing at Doncaster and I carried that forward into this pre-season, trained really hard and had it in the back of my mind to compete for everything. I didn’t want to be content with just being there; I wanted to make sure I am an option.”

Fusitu’a is not included in Rhinos’ initial squad for tomorrow and, though Handley has been named in the 21, he is in doubt after suffering a hip injury last week.

That keeps the door open for Tindall, who said: “[If selected] it would be my first game in a full stadium in front of the home fans, so that would obviously be good.

“I’m just preparing as if I will be playing and, hopefully, I will be and I’ll get another opportunity to show people what I can do.”

Rhinos have competition for wing spots so, when one of the fringe players gets an opportunity, he has to prove his worth. Tindall noted: “There’s two very good first-choice wingers and still competition behind that.

“There’s me, Jack Broadbent, Tom Briscoe can play on the wing - there’s plenty of people who can play there so it is quite a competitive spot at the minute.”

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