Mikolaj Oledzki makes Leeds Rhinos demand ahead of Warrington Wolves clash

Powerhouse forward Mikolaj Oledzki has revealed the ‘best part’ of Leeds Rhinos’ morale-boosting win against Wigan Warriors – and issued a challenge for Friday’s game at Warrington Wolves.

Oledzki received the Sky TV medal as man of the match in last Saturday’s 12-10 defeat of the reigning Betfred Super League champions, which ended a two-game losing run. Rhinos had to dig deep – trailing in the second-half before edging ahead with 13 minutes left – and Oledzki reckons they’ll need to show similar resolve against Warrington.

“The best part about the game and the win was it needed a bit of grit and determination to get over the line,” Oledzki said. “It wasn’t an easy game and I feel like it was a tough, gritty win.

“As a team you need those games and tests to see where you’re at. It was a good test for us and we’re really happy with how it went.”

Oledzki admitted: “The last few weeks we have been playing well for 60–70 minutes and it is 10-15-minute periods in the games where we’ve let ourselves down.

“I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but we’ve kind of lost the games ourselves – it’s not that teams are turning us over, we are kind of shooting ourselves in the foot. But [last Saturday] was a great performance and from one to 17, all the boys really dug in.”

The big challenge for Rhinos now is proving they can play like that week on week. “Great teams can back it up,” Oledzki stressed. “Our standards are very high and that’s the next step for us.

“We’ve been playing well for periods of games, but I think it was 80 minutes [last week] and we need another 80 minutes this week and another 80 minutes the week after.

“We can build momentum on the back of that, but we can only go a week at a time. It was a great performance against Wigan and we’ll look back at it and see what we can improve. There’s always areas to improve on and we go again this week.”

On a personal note, last week’s performance was reminiscent of the form Oledzki showed in 2021 and 2022, when he was Leeds Rhinos’ player of the year in successive seasons and earned an England call-up.

“I am just trying to enjoy myself and play with a smile on my face,” he said: “This year, we’ve got a great team, our pack is full of great quality players and I am very fortunate to get to play with these boys every week. I love coming to training every day and spending time with these boys.

“I feel like we are getting better and better as a pack; as a middle, I feel like we are going well and all the credit goes to the boys for ripping in every week.

“Even when the results haven’t gone our way, we keep turning up and grinding away. Champion teams do that every week and that’s what we are striving to be.”

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— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) March 26, 2025