BRAD ARTHUR has revealed that Jack Bird will keep his place in the Leeds Rhinos side ahead of Harry Newman for his side’s clash against Bradford Bulls on Friday night.
Newman was dropped by Arthur for last week’s win over Warrington Wolves, with new recruit Bird favoured in the centres.
And it’s fair to say that Arthur was impressed by Bird’s performance and believes the ex-Wests Tigers man can only get better.
“Jack Bird will keep his place. Jack did a lot of work off the ball in effort areas. When we were in the grind of set for set footy, he had a lot of urgency to get back behind the ball to make some strong carries when we needed it,” Arthur said.
“He hasn’t played a full 80 minutes for six or seven months. That’s why we took it a bit slow with him earning his way into the team so I feel he will only get better.
“Once he’s got full knowledge of our systems and combinations his game will grow. He scored a nice try last week and he still had a fair bit of work to do there.”
Bird replaced Harry Newman, so what can Newman do to get back into the Leeds side?
“He’s got a couple of niggles to get on top of and now he’s got to wait until an opportunity comes up.
“He needs to make sure he’s got a good attitude. It’s a tough position for him to be in that he probably hasn’t been in before.
“It’s unfortunate, no one is happy about it but that’s the way it is. He will do the right thing and work hard to get himself back in the team.”