Leuluai: Treble season hard to top
Retired Leeds legend Kylie Leuluai can’t see another team matching the Rhinos’ 2015 treble-winning campaign in the future.
Leuluai hung up his boots at the end of last season after more than 330 games. The Kiwi is now working for Leeds in player welfare.
Leuluai admits it’s hard to know how the Rhinos will fare this year without Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and himself.
“I would haven’t a clue,” he told Love Rugby League.
“I think they’ll miss Kevvy a lot. As a cool head, his experience and his kicking game. Most importantly his professionalism and his leadership.
“[It’s the] Experience, those old heads. That’s the challenge they’ll have. They’ve still got some older players there like Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Rob Burrow, also they’ve got Keith Galloway.
“How they going to go this year? I’m not too sure. You can’t top last year. I’m not too sure a team will able to do that again to be honest.”
Leuluia, who played in Super League with Leeds for nine seasons, believes Wigan and St Helens will be strong in 2016.
“I think the two teams that stand out for me are Wigan and St Helens,” he said.
“They had such a young team last year and then did better than everyone expected to be honest.
“Obviously Saints won it the year before but I don’t think they full deserved that win. If Ben Flower didn’t get sent off Wigan would have won it for sure.”
Leuluai, who debuted for Balmain back in 1999, played 16 years of first-grade in Australia and the UK.
The 37-year old won a ton of silverware in his time at Headingley and said his final season, including a match against New Zealand, was a very memorable way of ending his career.
“It was meant to be, then to play New Zealand at the end of it, that was probably the most enjoyable game I’ve played in years,” the prop admitted.
“I was able to relax and just enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy playing the game. I enjoyed that more than I did than a lot of the games in the trouble.
“[Then the haka at the end] it was awesome. It was a good way to finish. They were memorable moments. You couldn’t finish any better.”