Leeds Rhinos head coach Richard spoke to the media on Friday lunchtime and was quizzed on a number of topics.
Agar’s men kick off their Super League campaign at home to big-spending Warrington Wolves on Saturday lunchtime.
The Headingley clash will be the first regular Super League game to be televised free-to-air, with Leeds-based Channel 4 to show 10 matches throughout the 2022 campaign.
Agar on the excitement building in the Rhinos camp
Watching Thursday’s opener between St Helens and Catalans Dragons – and the intensity of that – has got everybody excited and the juices flowing. We know there will be a big crowd at Headingley and there is all the excitement of Channel 4, but we feel ready. In terms of getting better, gradually that comes with playing live football. I think you can only get so far in training before it needs to get real. Having said that, we have played enough trial games and everyone has got enough minutes under our belts. I do feel we have not been chasing our tail in terms of preparation.
On the one-game ban that rules out Blake Austin
Irrespective of whether it would have ruled Blake out of the Hunslet game, we’re just majorly disappointed that we found out eight days after we uploaded our game and it came on Monday. It impacted our preparation but as a club we’re not going to waste too much energy on it. We’ll take it up with the correct channels behind the scenes and try not and make it a focus of tomorrow. It is nothing that I don’t think we’re not able to cope with. Harry Newman, we’ll see how he is tomorrow, but Harry’s inclusion could certainly impact on who plays six for us. Blake is a strong contributor whether he’s playing or not. Any bits he can chip in will be great for us. Of course we would love to have Blake available for this one. But we have been able to have a contingency plan in place and put some very good players in the starting line-up.
On facing title rivals Warrington under new head coach Daryl Powell
From watching Warrington in pre-season, you can certainly see that they have got a new coach and there is some obvious changes in what they are doing. But the class players are still the class players – guys like Ben Currie and the terrific spine they have. I want controlled passion. I want to see us defend well, chase kicks well and really set a platform for us.
On Matt Prior’s 300th appearance
We’ve had a presentation to Matty this morning to recognise his wonderful achievements in the game. He’s been a truly magnificent signing for us. I think to play 300 games, not all of them in the front row – Matty played a fair bit of edge in his St George days – but the way he plays the game and his longevity. He’s won a premiership at St George and at Cronulla, and he’s won a Challenge Cup at Leeds alongside some State of Origin appearances as well. He’s shown remarkable quality, resilience, toughness, he plays big, big minutes and everybody loves playing with him. Every week you know what you’re going to get with him. His standards have been huge and the level he’s still playing at is testament to how he’s looked after himself in a thoroughly professional nature. Matty is straightforward and you know where you are with him. He’s very low maintenance and is very easy to coach. He just gets on with it and doesn’t get ruffled too much about anything. He’s still got plenty left in the tank.
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On former players making shirt presentations to Prior and three debutants (James Bentley, Aidan Sezer and David Fusitu’a)
The club is blessed with so many wonderful players, title winners and Challenge Cup winners, certainly over the past 20 years with the golden generation. During pre-season, Darren Fleary came in and played a part with Colin Maskill and Danny Ward. This morning Kevin Dick and Carl Hall came in. Kevin is a Challenge Cup winner, was a Great Britain international, played for Yorkshire, was man of the match in big finals and scored over 1,000 points for the club. We reached out to him and he had us in stitches - we are telling the boys about discipline and he’s been talking about banjoing people, playing behind the line! It’s huge respect to Kevin for giving his time up and coming in. We had Carl Hall in and he’s been a wonderful servant to rugby league in this country after coming over as a junior Kiwi. He also represented the club, albeit for a short time, but it’s the work he’s done for the game on and off the field at Doncaster. He also keeps the Kiwi, Polynesian and Islander guys together, has been vice-president of the RFL and was a big part of the Exiles last year. Carl came in and said a few words and we invited James Bentley’s family in. Being lifelong Leeds fans, we thought it would be a real special moment and we managed to dig some pictures out of a nine-year-old James in his Leeds shirt, meeting Scott Donald and at Wembley.
On the game being televised live on Channel 4
It’s awesome. We’re really excited about it. We feel privileged and proud and we want to get out there and put a good show on, we really do. It’s a really exciting opportunity for the game. Everyone’s juices were flowing after watching the Sky game last night. I thought Jonesy and Jon Wilkin gave a wonderful, refreshing energy to the coverage. I thought they were brilliant and the intensity of the game was magnificent. I was in Channel 4 on Monday and the guys who are behind the scenes producing the coverage are just as excited as we are. Our game is their first go at it. Like us in our trial games, there may be some things that don’t go as smoothly as you would like. But I think it’s a huge opportunity for the game.
