Welsh international signing “can’t wait” to play against home-town club

Leeds Rhinos face off with Leigh Leopards on Saturday in a game that has plenty of crossover, not least Rhinos’ new signing Luis Roberts.

Roberts has signed from Leigh and is a Leigh-born lad having grown up supporting the club but come 3pm on Saturday he’ll be trying to defeat them.

Speaking to Rhinos’ Youtube channel, Roberts talked about his love for his home-town club and what can be expected as the two sides context the Bev Risman Trophy.

“It’s finally that time now, can’t wait to get started. It’s been a good few weeks of pre-season under my belt. Leigh are a family club for me so at least everyone is going to be there to watch me.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Leigh because they’re my home-town club and I’ve played for them. It’s really good (to see them back in Super League), I’ve supported them all my life and you aspire to have your club in Super League and it’s good to see them back.”

Roberts has made the switch and was rewarded for his successful season at Leigh in 2022 with a call-up to the Wales squad for the World Cup where he made two appearances.

With Rohan Smith having already reported that centre and wing combinations will be trialled, as reported here, Roberts, who is typically a centre, expressed his excitement at playing on the wing in the game tomorrow.

“I’ll be running on the wing for the first half of the game, I’ve not played winger for a good year now when I was last at Swinton. I enjoy playing the wing really but in the second-half I’ll be back in the centres.

“There’s a lot of players in the backs, good players as well, so I’m just trying to find my way in the team this year and hopefully having the ability to play wing and centre I’ll be able to find a good spot somewhere.”

Rhinos have named a strong squad for the match-up with Leigh with the only position that seemingly isn’t at full strength, at least by the assigned squad numbers, is centre.

Both Harry Newman and Nene Macdonald are still recovering from injury and therefore this game will serve as a huge opportunity for Roberts to stake a claim at the starting position.

Rohan Smith has named his 21 man squad for this Saturday's trip to Leigh Leopards with several of the Rhinos new signings set to be involved
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