Leeds Rhinos boss Richard Agar provides update on Harry Newman and Blake Austin and gives verdict on Kruise Leeming yellow card

Richard Agar’s Leeds Rhinos overcame Wakefield Trinity with ease at Belle Vue tonight.

Though the scoreline ended 34-18, it certainly flattered Trinity after a superb first-half from the Rhinos where they raced into a 30-0 lead at the break.

For Agar, he waxed lyrical about how his side played in the first-half, with free-flowing rugby league the aim.

“I think we’ve been close in two games, we understand it’s a bumpy start with no wins and the expectation around us,” Agar said.

“We could see some good bits we’ve been doing and we needed to keep doing and we just needed to encourage to play with the ball more and play the free-flowing footy that we know we can do.

“I thought the inclusions back in our side really helped and we wanted to see the cracking tries, despite the conditions.

“There is a tendency to play completion rate kick-chase footy but I think we played plenty and we had good early ball movement.

“We didn’t thread the needle too much, but we completed with 91%.”

Kruise Leeming was given a yellow card late on in the game for a high tackle, but Agar said it ‘looked alright’ from where he was.

“I don’t know (if it was a yellow), it looked alright.

“It looked like a good tackle but where we are (in the game) if there is any slight doubt that he’s caught himself a little bit high then it seems to be a sinbin in some instances and others in not.”

Leeds were also hindered by the withdrawals of Harry Newman and Blake Austin through injury.

‘Blake was an HIA but he is fine.

“Harry in that tackle, he felt his hamstring a little bit – it was precautionary and we decided to withdraw him.”