Barely an hour had passed since Leeds Rhinos became Super League champions last October and the questions the players had expected for weeks were being thrown at them in the Old Trafford tunnel.
The Rhinos had just secured the first treble – the League Leaders’ Shield, Challenge Cup and Super League Grand Final – in their history, but the players were not being asked about their incredible success, they were already being asked about what the future held.
That 22-20 win against Wigan signalled farewell for three of the club’s greatest players. Kevin Sinfield, their captain, Jamie Peacock, their finest recruit, and Kylie Leuluai, perhaps the club’s most successful import, were all departing; Sinfield to rugby union, the other two into retirement.
That is why every television broadcast, every match report and every piece of analysis on that night focused on the fairytale finish for Sinfield, Peacock and Leuluai – not the players who were being left behind. How would Leeds cope without them? If the first three months of this season are anything to judge by, then the answer is not that well.
There is mitigation aplenty, but the fact is that the club have just three wins to their name, almost three months into the season. They are four points adrift of the top eight and, with only 12 rounds left until the Super League splits off into the Super 8s, Leeds could be embroiled in a fight to avoid relegation.
“There was never a contingency plan in place to replace those men – that is an impossible ask,” explains the club’s chief executive, Gary Hetherington. “It was always going to be tough but what has compounded it is a myriad of factors. We’ve not been able to gauge how good this team can be since those legends departed.”
One of those factors has been injuries, notably to the man with the arduous task of taking the armband from Sinfield. Danny McGuire has played just three of Leeds’ 11 games and he concedes the honour of captaining his hometown club has been challenging. “It’s been really tough,” McGuire says. “It’s been a difficult few months for the team and me personally and it’s not how I imagined things going when I was told I’d be captain. I’ve had loads of great times and this is a testing one, but we’ve got to keep positive.”
England internationals such as Ryan Hall, Tom Briscoe and Carl Ablett have had extended periods on the sidelines, and the new recruits Keith Galloway and Beau Falloon have also yet to fire – with the prop Galloway having the daunting challenge of stepping into Peacock’s and Leuluai’s boots in the front row.
The Rhinos have also had significant off‑field problems to contend with, as the floods that ravaged parts of West Yorkshire in December claimed the club’s Kirkstall training facility as a victim. The Rhinos have since trained at various outposts all across the city and Hetherington admits it has played a role in what has been a problematic campaign.
“It’s proved to be a much bigger issue than we anticipated,” he says. “We’ve never been without it in the past and it’s an incredible loss. The first team have had to use a whole host of different fields around the city, players have been jumping in cars to do different parts of their day and it’s been totally fragmented, and there’s no doubting it’s had an impact on performances.”
But there are glimmers of hope. The loss of so many stars to pastures new and the treatment room has meant Leeds have been able to blood a number of youngsters from their academy, with the man who has deputised for McGuire for most of this year, the young half-back Jordan Lilley, one of several to have impressed.
“I’ve racked up some decent performances but it’s still all just about learning for me and trying to get better as the season goes on,” the 18-year-old says.
“The experience younger lads like myself are getting now is invaluable. This is a changing of the guard for the club with the younger guys coming in at the start of this year and others moving on, so it’s time for us to stand up and reproduce what they’ve done in the past.”
Their most recent performance, a 20-18 win against in-form Hull FC last Friday, suggests the tide may be turning at Headingley. “I reckon that Hull game will turn out to be a massive result in the grand scheme of things,” McGuire says. “They were in good shape and although we had players out, we managed to get over the line and win. I’m of the belief that although times are tough now, the experience these kids are getting will be invaluable for this club in the years to come.”
Five of their eight defeats have been by four points or fewer and their indifferent start has been mitigated by the most tightly contested Super League in years – that win last week means that they are just three victories behind fifth-placed Widnes before Friday’s trip to St Helens. “If we make it two in a row at the weekend we’ll be on a roll and who knows what could happen after that,” McGuire says.
Recent history has shown that Leeds are to be written off at your peril, but bouncing back without the holy trinity of Sinfield, Peacock and Leuluai is uncharted territory for a club who are rebuilding off the field as well as on it.
