Rhinos Ready to Rock the Super8s

Leeds Rhinos have made one enforced change ahead of tomorrow night’s match against Warrington Wolves as they look to start the First Utility Super League’s Super 8s with a bang.

Josh Walters comes in to replace the injured Jamie Jones-Buchanan as the Rhinos hope to take another step forward towards cementing their place at the top of the table.

The Super 8s is a new concept introduced this season where the Super League and Rugby league Championship split into three sub-divisions – the Super League, The Qualifiers and the Championship Shield.

Leeds find themselves at the head of the Super League group – featuring the top eight clubs of the regular season – but will face fierce competition to remain in the top four and feature in the overhauled Play-offs come the end of September.

Rhinos head coach Brian McDermott reckons that the Super 8s format will ramp up the quality of rugby to a play-off standard.

“It’s definitely not another game. I think we enter now into a phase where we are going to play seven games of an intense level.

“In the play-off system of the past, you’d only play three or four games to get through to the Grand Final. What we have now is seven games of play-off standard to get through before we decide who is top four.”