Jack Sinfield could follow in his father’s footsteps as one of the stars of a talented Leeds Rhinos generation, according to coach Richard Agar.
The 17-year-old halfback made his first-team debut on Boxing Day, coming off the bench for a 15-minute spell in which he helped set up a try and nailed two goals.
His promotion to the senior squad for the 2022 season naturally excited Leeds fans with hopes he can emulate his father Kevin, a true Rhinos legend who captained the club to seven Super League titles.
Agar admits to having high hopes for the younger Sinfield, believing he can form part of their spine for years to come.
“When you look back to what is termed the Golden Generation, (in) Kevin, Danny (McGuire), Rob (Burrow), Matt Diskin, they had an abundance of spine players and leaders who have been the core of the club.
“We feel we’ve now got a really good strong core of young English talent, and we can complement that with really high-quality overseas players with experience.
“We’ve got a lot of positions well covered, but actually spine players are maybe not one of them.
“We’ve got a young fullback and tons of good fullbacks underneath that coming through, but in terms of sixes and sevens we haven’t had any graduate over the last couple of years.
“We feel that Jack is a player who in junior football has stood out.
“There’s not massive expectations on Jack to play first grade this year, but we felt (we should be) getting him in with Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin, giving him a head start.
“We do feel he is equipped with the skills and the temperament to go on and be a player that we can develop in that position at the club in an area where the stocks haven’t been maybe as good as they have in other positions.”
That experienced pair of Sezer and Austin both debuted against Wakefield and although their attack was “a bit clunky” at times, Agar said “there were really good signs for us going forward”.
The Leeds boss was confident that Sezer would be fine after rolling his ankle in a tackle, while their other new signing to feature, forward James Bentley, came off with soreness in his Achilles tendon after a shift in which Agar praised his defensive standards.
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