Zak Hardaker reveals latest on his Leeds Rhinos future, talks win over Castleford and play-off aim

Hardaker, a treble winner with Rhinos seven years ago, rejoined the club in April on a deal until the end of this season after being released by Wigan Warriors.

He was an influential figure as they climbed away from relegation danger to finish fifth on the Betfred Super League table.

Where Hardaker will be next term was a topic of conversation with fans as Rhinos did their traditional last home game lap of honour following Saturday’s 14-8 win over Castleford Tigers.

“People in the crowd were asking me,” Hardaker said afterwards.

“I don’t know, I’ve not been shown anything.

“I would like to stay, but nothing has been produced so we’ll have to see how it goes.

“We’ll have to sort something out soon though, because the season is finishing.”

Hardaker has clearly enjoyed his second spell in blue and amber.

“It has been brilliant being back,” he added.

“I feel like I’ve fitted into the group really well. We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, but it’s not there yet.”

The win over Tigers sealed Rhinos’ place in the play-offs and an elimination tie at Catalans Dragons on Friday.

It was 0-0 at half-time and Tigers took an 8-0 lead, but Leeds scored a penalty goal and two converted tries in the final seven minutes.

“We were really poor,” Hardaker conceded. “I can sum it up in one word, frustrating.

“I felt like we tried to play a bit too much and we didn’t earn the right to play, but the flip side is I thought we were always in with a chance of winning the game.

“Even 8-0 down I felt pretty confident, we just needed to get the ball and play the ball more times than them, which Rohan [Smith, Rhinos’ coach] talks a lot about.

“Although it came down to the last minute, I always thought we’d come out the other end.”

Rhinos took the unusual option of kicking a penalty goal when they trailed 8-0.

“Someone told us to take the two,” Hardaker recalled.

“I was looking around, saying let’s kick on and try and get a try, but you can’t argue with the powers above!

“You crack on and I think it worked pretty well, just getting some points on the board settled us a little bit and you keep playing until the end.

“That’s what this team does, we did it four weeks ago against Catalans and against Huddersfield the other week.

“We have got that in us, but we don’t want to be needing to do that too often.

“There’s plenty of things to fix up for this week, but we’re looking forward to it.”

Friday is Rhinos’ fourth trip to France in less than two months and will come just 11 days after a 32-18 league defeat at Catalans.

Hardaker said: “I wouldn’t say we are used to the travel, it’s not the best, but we just have to get on with it.

“We’ve been to Catalans twice, won one and lost one and in both games we started pretty poorly.

“We know what we can do to be better and hopefully we can do that.”

Rhinos have lost only two of their last nine games and won 11 from 16 since Smith took charge in May.

“Rohan has come in and changed a few things and we are playing with a smile on our faces,” Hardaker noted.

“That’s showing on the field. We have chalked some wins off and we are pretty confident on the day whoever we play we’ll win.”