Out: -
Injured - Fusitua, Olpherts, Gannon, Hudson, Simpson, Warren.
Banned - Bentley, Lisone, Donaldson

Doubt - Oledzki

Miller; Roberts Newman Momirovski Handley; Croft Frawley; Sangare Ackers Goudemand; Martin McDonnell; Smith

O’Connor Holroyd Ruan Nicholson-Watton

Edgell — McCormack Sinfield Lumb

Lumb would drop out if Oledzki is available, but might be better to give Oledzki another week ahead of the St Helens game the week after.

Can’t disagree with this: I might start two recognised props and have Goudemand on the bench but depends on Mik to some extent. I’m watching this one so hopefully my 100% record of 2024 continues!

If Mik is fit I'd play him as opposed to resting for Saints. This game will provide a real indicator of progress. Last year we beat Catalans at home and promptly flopped away at KR the next week. Leigh, even without Ipape and Asitasa, are a very good side. Beat them and it sends out a message to the rest of the clubs and also a lot of Leeds fans who seem to have lost the faith. Get the two points and then hope to sell out HQ for Saints.

If we have Holroyd and maybe Ruan/TNW available on the bench, we can afford to start with Sangare and Goudemand maybe and then spell Mik. We probably need to reduce his game time and exposure a bit if we can, but agree the two points away at Leigh count the same as the ones at home to Saints to following week, so it's best possible side here.

If Mik's fit, he plays. Everyone else pretty much picks itself given the absentees.

Has there been any update on Simpson? I know even when he is fit, he will unlikely feature for a while until match fit and until a centre or wing spot opens up again.

I haven’t heard but he was walking around pretty freely with the lads at the last game: I imagine he’ll play in the first reserves fixture TBH

We need to be very careful with Miks shoulder. Same one he had surgery on. Very vulnerable area for RL player. Think he is ruled out with no time scale, until we see how it settles…
Personally don’t think he’ll be risked for good few weeks…..

Think this will be a very similar game to Catalans. Leigh competed really strongly against Saints especially in the middle of the park and were very hard to break down. Probably more important than the Saints game as beating the teams competing for 3rd to 6th will have more impact on the table come end of year.

For me I want to see fewer mistakes and a tighter performance which applies pressure to Leigh. It’s nice to heroically defend but we don’t need to be inviting it.

Forecast looks (at the moment) a little drier so fingers crossed. Holroyd and McDonnell should be better after their first games.

Yep hopefully the pack has a good dig. I'm already nervous about the prospect of an over excited Bentley returning against his old chums from saints so might be good if this week's side showed enough for RS to manage that. Though it's equally possible that Rohan's got one eye on the clock until he can put him straight back in the firing line. Either way, good showings all round would be wonderful following the persistent failure to back up performances last year.

We have more resilience this year. I can see a scenario where Olpherts doesn’t play first grade this year for one. Also Donno will struggle to get back in the 17 once we get troops back. Bentley has a battle with O’Connor and McDonnell.

We have a couple of centres who can cover Mom and Newman rather than moving Martin out…. I just think we have way better strength in depth this year which should lead to more consistency.

Already, and we’re not alone here, it’s obvious we need to keep Croft fit.

I understand what you are saying, but at this point in the season all that matters is the 2 points in the next game.

If we lose against Leigh, win against Saints, or vice versa doesn't matter all that much at this stage. Maybe more important to win the next one to build a bit of belief in the squad that we are moving away from the inconsistency that dogged us last season. But we can't really prioritise effort against who we think will finish 3rd to 6th in another 20 or so rounds, there are too many variables in play and things aren't as predictable as they may seem.

Maximise the points on offer, and take confidence from showing we can match it with the likes of Saints even if we're still a work in progress.

I agree Leigh will be a tough ask.

Leigh are really annoying: I mean fair play to them genuinely they’ve done terrifically well. It just seems wrong that they can be better than Leeds with all our history and resources and academy etc…. Anyway. Hopefully we put in another good performance and start to build real confidence and swagger.

This is what can happen in a salary capped sport if you get it mostly right.

Leigh will struggle if they continue to pick up injuries their squad is light.

They were pretty lucky in that regard last season which helped them.

There are benefits to growing your own talent on the salary cap; plus marquees you can pretty much spend as much as you can afford there can’t you? So it’s not an entirely level playing field…

I’m quite up for this one, early season but we should still be climbing the table.

Just realised, RE thread title it's not Centurions anymore

Big losses Ipape, Asiata and Briscoe. Helps Leeds chances.

Ipape is phenomenal on his day. Looks like Dwyer might be lining up against Ackers?

Briscoe is solid but probably not a huge loss (like he wasn't for us) - Asiata is a bit grubby but good, they might miss him.

Nice interviews with Holroyd and Ruan on the Rhinos media: imagine they will both play again.

Reckon it will be another tough game.

In the main we defended with great resilience v Catalan, who I thought played far too much one man out stuff, I don’t remember Johnstone getting a single pass off good ball.

Reckon we did not play the ball in their 20 until 55th minute, we fought hard and got the win but my wider doubts are around how often the rope a dope stuff can work v a quality side playing well.

Croft, Newman and Handley all very good , hope they can do it again and hope
It’s a dry track.

Bentley’s effort will be a miss but he needs to start playing a lot smarter and stop
Reacting to everything. Old enough now

Sounds like Oledski is close to a return, that will make a big difference if he's fit.

Unless things change the weather is supposedly dry this week. So the pitch should be in reasonably good condition. Hopefully we can complete our first few sets with a 100% completion rate. First 20 minutes against Catalan was a nightmare, if we get plenty of early field position we should win this one.

Id really like to see us come out firing in the first half, we did against KR but on a better pitch we should be able to make more of it, and also please no yellow or red cards!!!!

Agree. In every game so far we've come up with an early error that has handed the opposition the momentum deep in our half. Week one it was kicking it out on the full, week two it was a forward pass, week three it was a drop ball from the kick off with other errors thrown in. In terms of general play we do well in terns of making metres but if we keep handing other teams the ball on the line we'll suffer. Even with Mik back this is 50/50 given they have home advantage.