Leeds Rhinos captain Kevin Sinfield is ready to return from his two-match ban this weekend against Warrington, and he says his fortnight away from playing has given him extra focus to succeed.
Sinfield was infamously sent off against Castleford two weeks ago after headbutting Luke Dorn, and after sitting out his ban, he is almost certain to return to the Rhinos line-up against the Wolves. And the Rhinos skipper said he’s rested, refreshed and ready to fire the Rhinos to Wembley once again – saying he’s trying to use the ban as a positive.
“I’ve tried to not read any of the stories about it, and I turned the TV off for the first couple of days,” Sinfield said.
“If anything it’s given me focus. I was disappointed to miss the last two games. I thought we played some great stuff at Salford and got a really good result and was disappointed to miss the derby game against Bradford at Headingley, so to miss those games was certainly a punishment.
“But it’s allowed me to rest and get rid of some niggles. I do hope to use it as a positive. It wasn’t pleasant and going through the last two weeks hasn’t been ideal but if you look throughout my career there’s certainly been mistakes and been times when had to face different types of adversity and I think they help make you who you are.”
Sinfield said although he is disappointed with what happened against the Tigers a fortnight ago, he does not regret the experience, as he believes he can learn from it.
“I don’t regret it, I wouldn’t try and change it, as it’s happened. It is what it is, and if I can learn from it and come back better then that’s what I’ll try to do.
“I want to play as well as I can on Saturday, irrelevant of what happened two weeks ago, because if I play as well as I can I help the team perform as well as they can and we give ourselves the best chance.
“I am disappointed with what happened two weeks ago. The fact that we ended up drawing that game, the fact that we lost on Friday, doesn’t sit all that well with me but I can’t change what’s happened now so I’m focusing on playing well on Saturday. If I do that hopefully we’ll perform as a team.”
