Keinhorst pays tribute to former teammate Rob Burrow

Hull KR centre Jimmy Keinhorst credited rugby league legend Rob Burrow as being the conduit that helped kick-start his professional career and shape the player he is today.

Keinhorst came on the scene in 2012 with former club Leeds Rhinos and were team mates until Burrow’s retirement back in 2017.

Burrow is of course unfortunately suffering from motor-neurone disease and though his documentary “Rob Burrow: My Year with MND” may have missed out at the National Television Awards, Keinhorst reflected on his time with the legend and admitted he is indebted to him with his career.

Keinhorst said: “When I first come through, Rob Burrow was quite good in helping me. He always showed a massive amount of confidence in anyone, wherever they came from, whatever they had done.

“To give you the opportunity not to play differently around him, to let you do what you do and have that confidence in you, I think that is a big thing that has stuck with me to this day.

“Having the confidence in the guys around you is a massive factor in our game and knowing someone is going to back you up either way is good.”

Next up for Keinhorst is a trip to former club Leeds this Friday in the final round in a potential “all or nothing” battle for the play-offs.

Looking ahead at the fixture, Keinhorst added: “I think Leeds have a lot of dangerous players, especially the two dummy half players.

“They have had their fair share of injuries but to manage that the way they have and to still be in the mix for the play-offs, they have done well with that.

“I think they have shown some resilience in them and character and obviously they have a good group of young blokes coming through who have performed pretty well in the last couple of weeks.

“We will be ready for a lot of attacking threat from them, especially out of dummy half with Brad Dwyer and Kruise Leeming and strike on the edges as well.”