Sinfield makes a shock return to the ailing Rhinos
FORMER Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield is confident he can quickly turn around the fortunes of the ailing Super League champions on his shock return to the club.
Sinfield, the most successful captain in the club’s history who bowed out after their 2015 Grand Final triumph, has been appointed their first-ever director of rugby, filling the vacancy created by the sacking of Brian McDermott, alongside another former player, James Lowes.
The pair take charge of a side that dropped into the bottom four of Super League on Thursday night and have four matches to avoid a place in the Super 8s Qualifiers, starting with a Grand Final rematch with Castleford on Sunday, but Sinfield is undaunted by the challenge.
“I don’t think you get too many opportunities to join the biggest club in the game,” he said. “I’m delighted to be back. The role is everything I wanted it to be, it’s a dream job.
“I could have looked at this job for the next 30 years and wished I was there or I can do something about it.
“I’m passionate about the club, I love the place, I don’t think I would have accepted the role if I didn’t truly believe it was the right thing. I’m pretty confident, pretty quickly, we can turn things around.
“I know the expectation here, I have lived and breathed it since I was 13 and I understand exactly what it’s about.”
Sinfield, who led the club to seven Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups, three World Club Challenges and three League Leaders’ Shields in his 12 years as captain, was back in his track suit overseeing training yesterday afternoon but says most of the coaching will be done by Lowes, a former head coach of Bradford and Warrington.
“I’ve a little bit of experience coaching Saddleworth Under-13s for the last 18 months and I’ve been doing a bit of water carrying as well, so I think if you can coach kids of that age you can do anything,” Sinfield said.