Leeds Rhinos bring in two young forwards

Leeds Rhinos were beaten 50-0 by Wigan Warriors last week hurting their chances in battling with Warrington Wolves, Hull KR and Salford Red Devils.

They have been doing it tough and are short of players at the moment.

They have lost Blake Austin and Kruise Leeming to moves away whilst Zane Tetevano has been released.

They have also lost Nene MacDonald in recent weeks so have brought back Joe Gibbons and Tom Nicholson-Watton have been brought back from Keighley Cougars.

Keighley said: “Keighley Cougars have today learnt that Joe Gibbons and Tom Nicholson-Watton have been recalled back to Leeds Rhinos with immediate effect. Unfortunately, Leeds have hit a point where they are extremely down on available players for upcoming fixtures and Rohan Smith has had to make the tough decision to pull both players back.

“Cougars would like to thank both Joe and Tom for their excellent contributions to the club during their time here and both men leave the club with fantastic reviews from all the Rugby staff and we are excited to see them progress their rugby careers.

“We would also like to thank Leeds Rhinos and in particular, Matt Cook for helping us facilitate these loan signings during the summer.

“Both Keighley and Leeds are keen to develop this relationship which we believe is only in it’s infancy.”

This comes as Rohan Smith speaks about the loss to Wigan:

“It dents all of us. We’re disappointed. disappointed and I think we’ve had two games I think in the whole season where the opposition have scored 30 points or more which is in some ways our defence has been really reliable.

“We got beaten to the punch a few times on a couple of kick plays on the weekend and then things got a bit out of hand. We’re a young team playing on a hot day against a really good team.

“So we’ve taken some learns out of that and, you know, all hard situations give you the opportunity to, to show your resilience and become better for the future. So that’s the way we’ve gone about it. And we’re looking forward to the next opportunity in a tough environment.”