Why Leeds Rhinos can beat Warrington Wolves at Magic Weekend

A key Leeds Rhinos star might not be playing if new boss Brad Arthur had listened to what was said before he took charge.

Stand-off Brodie Croft is unavailable for tomorrow’s (Saturday) Magic Weekend meeting with Warrington Wolves at Elland Road, after flying home to Australia following the death of his grandfather, so fellow Australian Matt Frawley will play a crucial role as Rhinos’ only experienced pivot.

The number seven, who joined Leeds in the off-season from Canberra Raiders, has been arguably Rhinos’ most in-form player under Arthur and captained the team for last week’s win against Wigan Warriors when regular skipper Cameron Smith was suspended.

The former Huddersfield Giants man was dropped twice earlier this year, including for the final game before Arthur took charge, at Warrington last month and the coach admitted: “I didn’t do a great deal of research [before arriving at Leeds]. I watched a bit of games, but tried not to ask too many opinions of other people on the squad or what they thought.

“Maybe when I first came in, if I listened to the stuff about how Frawley was going, I wouldn’t have picked him – and he has been one of our better players.”

Arthur stressed he is only interested in what players have done in training and games since he took the reins. “I told them all from the word go I had no preconceived ideas, they’d all get judged on their merit and what they do from now,” he said. “I feel like that has probably helped a few of them and even the ones who might have been going well, it has made them reassess, harden up and get on with their job too.”

Why Matt Frawley is now shining for Leeds Rhinos

Frawley played for Canberra in last year’s NRL play-offs and former Parramatta Eels boss Arthur added: “I coached against him a fair bit over in Australia so I know what he’s good at. I just reminded him of what he is good at and gave him and Brodie some real clarity around who does what.

“Matt runs the team, does the calling of the majority of plays and Brodie chimes in on the back of that, which suits him. I like to have one person running the show and the rest of them on the back of it doing their role. That suits Matt, it gets him into the game and gives him some responsibility and ownership.”

Croft’s absence could mean Frawley has to adjust the way he plays this weekend, but Arthur insisted: “He has got a good running game as well. He has got a good show and go, we’ve seen he pokes his nose through the line when he shows the footy and he gets us a quick play-the-ball.”

Leeds Rhinos have lost twice to Warrington already this season, but make the short trip to Elland Road buoyed by last week’s impressive win over the reigning champions. “I think we are starting okay at the moment,” Arthur reflected.

“There are parts of the game where we are mismanaging it a bit, but at least last weekend when we turned over some ball cheaply we were able to flick the switch and just focus on that one set, rather than the error we made, defend that set of six, get the ball back and try and get back into the swing of things.

“We are getting better at managing the game, but there’s still some areas [to work on]. In the last 10 minutes of last week’s game, we turned over the ball, gave away a penalty and turned over the ball until we gifted them a try.”