Rohan Smith has expressed his desire to retain Sam Walters and Liam Tindall as the pair enter the closing months of their current deals. The Leeds Rhinos pair are both off-contract at the end of the season, with Walters particularly expected to command interest from rival clubs.
Leeds Live revealed last month that the towering forward had decided to enter the open market, with a number of clubs expected to try and lure him away from Headingley. The temptation of more regular game time, and a more lucrative deal to boot, could come into consideration.
However, Smith remains hopeful he will stay, as well as winger Tindall, who has made some cameo appearances throughout the season. He said: “The other guys, Sam and Liam, are guys we’d like to keep and we are working through that process to keep them.
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“We feel they are players we feel can develop with our group. There’s a core of English players within our group who are growing and developing and those guys, hopefully will be part of that process moving forward.”
Smith added: "Sam has played some games this year and done a good job for us. Tindall moved his way up the pecking order a little bit in the last little while. They're developing even though they're not playing every week. We hope that they stay."
When quizzed further on recruitment and retention, Smith said: "Firstly, we're working through some retention, I'm a big believer you don't always have to be looking outside. We've a lot of young players developing this year and more just behind them, so some of our recruitment has already been done.
"But we'll be looking for players who can add a point of difference to what we've currently got. Some of the players off-contract have got some of their own options to explore, so it's not all in our hands."
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