Brad Arthur, the manager of the Leeds Rhinos, has made his decision regarding suspended captain Cam Smith and identified the player who will wear the armband in his place.
Smith received a one-game suspension for a Grade B “Head Contact” offence following the Round 20 loss to Salford Red Devils; the Rhinos chose not to file an appeal.
Smith will miss his first game of the season, but during his press conference, Leeds Rhinos manager defended his captain and explained his replacement strategy.
Before Leeds’ match against Wigan, Arthur told the media, “To be fair to Cameron, I don’t think he’s a dirty player and as far as I know he hasn’t got a bad record judiciary-wise.”
To put it another way, I didn’t think it was substantial enough to warrant a one-week suspension. I’ve been here long enough to witness many of those tackles.
“Jarrod (O’Connor) enters now and will fill the role of number 13, giving him an opportunity to get off to a good start and demonstrate his abilities to the team.”
Who will captain Leeds Rhinos?
Arthur was also left in charge of selecting the team’s new captain for the match; Smith had been leading the group the entire season and had been chosen by Rohan Smith earlier in the year after the Rhinos had controversially decided not to name a captain for 2023.
Matt Frawley will be the next Leeds Rhinos captain, according to Brad Arthur, who has expressed great admiration for the playmaker after he faced backlash from supporters earlier in the season.
Arthur clarified, saying, “I talked to him about it this morning and I feel like he’s been leading the team around the pitch and owning how we need to play.
“He was alright last week, but his first two games for us were really good. He really controlled the game, and he’s calm and pleasant and seems like the obvious choice.”
Arthur joked that Frawley would really get no better than a coin toss, but he did provide an explanation for his selection of the former Huddersfield man as his captain.
“He still has to flip the coin at the beginning of the game to determine whether we receive the kickoff and which direction to run, but other than that, nothing really changes for him or what we need him to do.
“He has been guiding us around the pitch, yet he exudes a positive attitude.” When we didn’t quite get something right at the end of the training session on Wednesday, he walked them all back and said, “No, let’s go back and do it again,” demonstrating some good leadership qualities. That was excellent.
Leeds Rhinos and Wigan Warriors will play this afternoon at Headingley, with a 3pm kickoff.
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