WATCH - Going for Gold: Leeds Rhinos captain Kallum Watkins discusses his NRL move

Rhinos announced two weeks ago they had agreed to released Watkins from the final two years of his contract and he was set to leave at the end of this season.

But the move was brought forward after he penned a contract with the NRL club Gold Coast Titans until the end of 2021.

Rhinos’ other first-choice centre, Konrad Hurrell, joined them from Gold Coast last autumn.

Watkins told his teammates about the deal after Friday’s 23-14 home loss to Wigan Warriors.

He will be available for Rhinos’ game at St Helens next Friday and the home clash with Catalans Dragons on Sunday, June 30, before his Titans contract officially begins the following day.

The 28-year-old, who has scored 133 tries and 101 goals in 255 appearances for Leeds, said matters have moved quickly since his availability was made known.

“I wanted to explore my options, an opportunity came to go to Gold Coast and they requested me to come now,” he said.

“It is exciting times for myself and my family.

“I explored all options, but the NRL was a priority because this was the only chance I was going to get.

“I did put that high on my list.

“I didn’t want to look back on my career and think ‘there was an opportunity to go’ why didn’t I take it?

“I have been here for 11/12 years and it’s going to be a new environment and getting used to new things, but I want to take it with both hands and I am really excited to be going over there.”

Watkins insisted, for what is left of his time at Leeds, he will “just be focusing on getting this team to where they need to be”.

Rhinos remain in relegation danger and he admitted “It was disappointing [on Friday], I thought the effort was brilliant and our defence was good, but at certain moments we made too many errors and ultimately that cost us.”

But Watkins is confident Leeds will climb the Betfred Super League table over the final few months of the season.

“It is about just getting a good run of form,” he said.

“In terms of performance, it is getting better.

“We need to take positives out of that and continue to learn and work hard to get the right results.

“It is a big one next week, we have done well there quite a few times and we have got to go there confident about what we can achieve.”

Watkins has been in the second-row for Rhinos’ past two matches with teenager Harry Newman starting at centre.

Newman has the opportunity to make the right-centre spot his own and Watkins predicted: “The future is really bright here.

“The young kids here are magnificent and once they get opportunities they will take them with both hands.”