Kallum Watkins’ Leeds Rhinos role confirmed as debut plans revealed

Kallum Watkins will make his second debut for Leeds Rhinos this weekend from the bench, with Brad Arthur confirming he will feature against Huddersfield Giants on Friday.

Watkins returned to Leeds last week on a deal to the end of the season, after the Rhinos agreed a transfer fee to sign the Salford Red Devils captain.

Arthur admitted it would have been a difficult decision about where to fit Watkins into his team to face the Giants in Rivals Round had Mikolaj Oledzki not picked up a suspension. But interestingly, Arthur confirmed that Watkins will come off the interchange bench and play in the middle.

That would lean towards James Bentley and James McDonnell continuing in the back row, with Watkins playing more of a utility role.

He said: “Mikolaj is obviously out and Kallum will come into the 17. I don’t want to apply too much pressure too him early in the piece.

“He’ll start from the bench and we’ll put him on but I want him to get a feel for how we play and what we’re trying to drive. We’ll give him a couple of other roles in that and he’ll play a bit through the middle through us and get some short interchange of passing going.

“On the back of how he’s trained, he’ll get in there nice and smoothly I reckon.”

Arthur admitted he has been pleased with how Watkins has integrated himself into the squad since returning to AMT Headingley.

He said: “You can feel his presence. He hasn’t said a great deal yet but you can see his presence and the respect levels the players have for him.”

Arthur also revealed that the likes of Brodie Croft and Cameron Smith are closing in on their returns from injury.

Arthur said of Smith: “He was always around the ten-week mark. Around Round 10 or 11 we’ve a few that are getting close.

“Cam is close there, but after Round 10 we’ve got a week off so it might be worthwhile giving him the extra two weeks. Having said that, we’re not going to hide blokes for sake of it but Ethan (Clark-Wood) and Crofty are around that time too.”

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