Darrell Griffin and Richard Moore will feature in first game for Leeds Rhinos - Rugby
Leeds Rhinos’ latest uptakes, Darrell Griffin and Richard Moore, will make their first appearances for Rhinos in the Heatshot Festive Challenge against the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats on Boxing Day at Headingley.
Griffin previously played for Huddersfield Giants, who he joined in 2006, whereas Moore was in the line up for the now defunct club, Crusaders, where he spent just a year, only to find out that the club was in financial problems. Therefore, Crusaders had
to pull themselves out of the Super League licensing process for the next three years.
There are a number of changes in the club at Rhinos. Brent Webb and Brett Delaney are not going to feature in the boxing day one-off exhibition game. This will be Richard Agar’s first outing being in charge of Wildcats. Meanwhile, Brian McDermott, the head
coach of Rhinos, shared that he will treat the friendly encounter as a league game. The encounter is a lucrative pre-season opportunity for either side, which will put them in gear for the next rugby league season kicking off on February 3, 2012.
While sharing his future plans, McDermott said, “I know in the past that the Boxing Day game has seen various strengths of teams playing but we will field our strongest possible team with the exception of the England players, who have not returned to training
yet, and Brent Webb and Brett Delaney, who have been given extra time off to return home. We only have the game against Featherstone for Rob Burrow’s testimonial before the start of the season so it is important that we approach the Heatshot Festive Challenge
like it is a league match and look to play in that manner.”
McDermott went on and explained that the boxing day’s friendly game will give a head start to next season’s game plan. He also shared that this will allow them to have a better evaluation of his side ahead of next season. The four weeks time before the start
of the season will be utilised to improve their future game.
Meanwhile, Wakefield will feature sixteen new faces on their side. It will be interesting to see how well the new recruits will perform with the Wildcats.
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