Coach Brad Arthur has revealed who will replace injured hooker Andy Ackers in Leeds Rhinos’ side against Wigan Warriors on Saturday.
Ackers is expected to be sidelined until July after suffering a hamstring tear during last week’s Betfred Challenge Cup defeat at St Helens.
The injury was the latest in a series of setbacks suffered by Rhinos’ pivotal players this year. Full-back Lachie Miller and halves Brodie Croft, Matt Frawley and Jack Sinfield have all had spells out of the team and loose-forward Cameron Smith is still on the casualty list.
Sinfield came off the bench to replace Ackers against Saints, but Arthur confirmed Jarrod O’Connor – who was 18th man last week – will get the nod to start against the reigning champions.
“It is disappointing for Andy,” Arthur said. “He had a good pre-season and nobody likes to be out of the team for that long, but the flip side of it is it gives Jarrod an opportunity.
“He wants to be a hooker and this is his opportunity with not a lot of pressure on him, really. He is not fighting for a spot now, he has got it to try to make it his own and when Andy’s back, we’ll worry about that then.”
Ackers started every game for Leeds Rhinos this year before his injury and Arthur praised his response to the setback. He said: “He is disappointed, but straight away, once he got the diagnosis, his first thing was he reached out to me to let me know he’ll do everything he can to get back as quick as he can and he is committed to the whole season. That was a good, positive response from a bloke that’s pretty professional.”
Sinfield is a specialist half-back but trained at hooker in pre-season. “I thought he did a reasonable job for us last week when he came on,” the coach said. “He is still learning the role and it’s good for him and his development, being able to play a couple of different positions.
“Having him on the bench means if something was to happen in the backline, he can play in the halves and we can move guys around. It gives us a bit of flexibility.”
For the first time, Miller, Croft, Frawley – who is available after concussion – and Jake Connor, a full-back or half, are all up for selection against Catalans.
Arthur hinted Miller will continue at full-back, but is keeping his plans for Frawley and Connor under wraps. “We’ve got a few combinations,” he said.
“It is good to have those guys available because it puts pressure on all of them to do their job really well and own that control of the team and that communication, which has been down a bit.
“Having Lachie there certainly helped, he is a threat and he takes pressure off other guys when they’ve got the ball.”
Last week was Miller’s first rugby since injuring a hamstring in September. The Aussie suffered a calf muscle problem in pre-season and trained only once with the team before his comeback. “He pulled up really well and has done two sessions this week,” Arthur added.
