Leeds Rhinos coach gives Matt Frawley update as injured star’s return date revealed

Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur insists there is nothing to read into about Matt Frawley’s absence from their 21-man squad to face Wakefield.

The Australian has been left out of Arthur’s squad to take on Trinity in Saturday’s huge West Yorkshire derby at AMT Headingley.

He has struggled for regular game-time this season and already been linked with an exit. Huddersfield Giants were interested in Frawley before filling their last quota spot with Tristan Powell’s signature.

But Arthur stressed the decision to omit Frawley is not because an exit is looming: it is more due to ‘balance’ in his squad.

“It’s just the balance of the squad,” he said.

“There’s no point having two halves in the 21-man rotation. Sinny (Jack Sinfield) can cover nine as well as half-back and it gives me the flexibility of another forward.”

Arthur will go with largely the same 17 on Saturday which won at Castleford last weekend. But one change will see James Bentley come in for an as-yet unnamed forward.

“Bentos is in and one of the forwards will be out tomorrow,” Arthur confirmed.

“We’re fortunate that our performance and medical guys have done a good job to keep everyone honest and then we can move our forwards around a bit. We still don’t know what our best combination looks like.”

There is a further boost coming for Leeds too, with Andy Ackers to return after the break for the Challenge Cup final.

And as the midway point of 2025 approaches, Arthur admits he is delighted with how his team are coming together.

He said: “In terms of what we’re about and what we want to achieve, the team’s got a good understanding of who we want to be.

“We need to continue to do it but they’ve made the choice about owning their attitudes. We’ve not been at our best each week but that’s down to execution and it’s the bit we need to tidy up each week.”

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