When Leeds Rhinos travel to Hull FC on Saturday for a game crucial to both clubs’ play-off hopes, the impact and indeed the future of their Australian half-backs will add intrigue to the fixture. Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin arrived at Headingley during the winter to forge a brand new partnership which encouraged hopes of a potential title challenge for Leeds.
The pair starred together for Canberra Raiders before they moved to Super League and had remained good friends since their NRL days. But the hoped-for fireworks have not materialised, for a number of reasons – largely due to a lengthy injury to Sezer and a failure of both players individually, and Leeds collectively, to hit top gear.
The Rhinos have struggled at half-back since the great Rob Burrow and Danny McGuire made their final appearances for the club in the 2017 Grand Final win over Castleford Tigers. Master craftsman McGuire grabbed a brace of tries to win the Harry Sunderland Trophy and Burrow showed his class as the legendary duo bowed out with an eighth Grand Final winners’ ring.
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With iconic captain Kevin Sinfield having departed as a treble winner in 2015, replacing such pivotal members of the Golden Generation has proved a difficult transition for Leeds. Cross-code scrum-half Kyle Eastmond lasted just two games before retiring last season while Luke Gale stayed at Leeds for two years before being sent to Hull FC at the end of last term.
Gale, a boyhood Rhinos supporter, kicked the drop-goal which inspired Leeds to a Challenge Cup final win over Salford in his debut campaign at Headingley in 2020. Gale fell out with Richard Agar midway through last season, though, was subsequently stripped of the captaincy and from there the writing was on the wall. With Sezer and Austin arriving, Gale accepted an offer to become Marc Sneyd’s replacement at the Black and Whites.
That left Austin and Sezer free to strike up a supposedly lethal combination which would destroy opposition defences. But Austin missed the round-one home defeat to Warrington through suspension and, with Sezer having been sidelined for three months due to a groin injury, they have played together only seven times in the blue and amber.
Significantly, six of those matches have ended in defeat, their sole win together coming in a 34-18 win at Wakefield Trinity in round four on March 3. Austin and Sezer are 31 and both men are contracted to Leeds for next season too.
As Rohan Smith patiently writes a new chapter at Headingley, it is to be hoped that the former Warrington and ex-Huddersfield playmakers can recapture the form they showed at their previous Super League clubs. If the ageing duo cannot sparkle in the remainder of the campaign and help the Rhinos to reach the play-offs, can they be relied upon as Smith’s first-choice half-backs in 2023?
Jack Sinfield has shown promise in his three appearances so far this season, but he is only 17 and not ready to become a regular starter at the highest level. Thus the pressure is on Austin and Sezer to prove their worth in the coming weeks, starting on Saturday at Hull, a club not adverse to showing the door to a big-name Aussie half-back.
They have just paid off Josh Reynolds and could have a replacement in position in time to face Leeds. If Austin and Sezer have underwhelmed at Headingley, Gale has experienced similar disappointment at Hull after being made club captain.
He has been banned twice this season, missing a total of seven games through suspension, and is out of contract at the end of the season. It seems unfathomable that Gale, who has just turned 34, will be offered a deal to remain with Brett Hodgson’s side beyond this year.
Having suffered a nasty head knock in the 4-0 defeat at Warrington, Gale will unfortunately be absent against the club who let him go last year. Austin and Sezer, though, will certainly have much to prove. With two precious points on the line in the race for the play-offs, it promises to be some scrap at the MKM Stadium.
