Boss Brad Arthur has provided an update after a Leeds Rhinos pivot was injured during today’s 92-0 Challenge Cup win against amateurs Wests Warriors – and explained why he left the team down to 12 men for a spell.
Jack Sinfield, who started at hooker before switching to his regular role as a half-back, scored a brace of tries, but suffered a bang to a foot midway through the second half.
That was a concern for Leeds with a week to go until their Betfred Super League round one derby at home to Wakefield Trinity, but speaking after the game, Arthur was hopeful the 20-year-old isn’t facing a long layoff.
“I think he’s okay,” Arthur said. “I think it is a bruise, it has just blown up from a bit of contact. The physio’s pretty confident he’s all right.”
He added: “Jack was nice and physical, he has got stronger in pre-season, so he’s looking good. He gives us some options.”
The coach didn’t immediately bring on a replacement when Sinfield left the field and revealed that was a pre-planned tactic.
He said: “I left us with 12 men for eight minutes or so just to see how we go. We’ve been practicing a bit of that.
“We told the coach from the other team we’d do it at some stage. It was no disrespect to them, but we’ve been doing a bit of work in case we get put in that situation this year, so it was a good opportunity to do it.”
Leeds Rhinos boss praises Wests Warriors after Challenge Cup win
We 💙 Rugby League, great showing from the boys from @wests_warriors as it ends 92-0 at AMT Headingley in @TheChallengeCup pic.twitter.com/D9qtC3Kei5
— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) February 8, 2025
Rhinos ran in 16 tries and Arthur, who included 15 of his top-20 players in the matchday squad, felt his men did a professional job.
“We wanted to focus on our discipline,” he said. “There were a couple of things we wanted to be good at, we didn’t want the game to get loose and we needed to respect ourselves, the competition and those guys [Wests] with a high completion rate.
“I thought our completions was really good. In those sorts of games you get a tendency to want to play a little bit different.
“We still gave a couple of penalties away which we can avoid, but overall we are happy we’ve got through that game now.”
Arthur stressed: “We want to make sure we thank the opposition. They played the game in good spirits and me and Bleasey [sporting director Ian Blease] went to thank them.
“They got a good experience out of it and hopefully it helps grow their club. They had a crack, big Sambo [Sam Lisone] was running hard off the kick-offs and they got their bodies in front, they played for the full 80 minutes and they should be proud of themselves.
“They kept turning up, they were physical and they put their bodies on the line. They are not a professional outfit and that’s the difference, but we’re grateful they played the game in the right spirit. They came with the right intentions.”
