Leeds Rhinos coach Richard Agar taking nothing for granted in play-off race

Despite looking out of the race recently, the eight-times champions have now put themselves firmly in a prime position to secure a top-six spot with just four regular rounds remaining.

They head to Wakefield Trinity on Monday looking for a fourth successive win and increasingly confident.

Wednesday’s 14-0 success at Wigan Warriors, allied to Hull FC’s loss against Castleford Tigers and Hull KR’s defeat to Wakefield the following night, has seen them back into the top six.

Improving Leeds are up to fifth with Castleford taking sixth spot, Hull and Rovers the ones subsequently dropping out.

But assessing the play-offs picture, Agar insisted: “It’s probably what it was before our game at Wigan; your next game is still your biggest one.

“We’ve said for a while we need to concentrate on ourselves and the league table will then take care of itself.

“I still feel you can’t take anything for granted. There are still plenty of things that can happen and plenty of twists and turns if you don’t get your performance right.

“(But) we are in a good spot. And a better spot than we have been in that we can control our own destiny from hereon in and that starts on Monday.”

If required, Leeds should be able to freshen up for the derby at Wakefield.

Agar names his 21-man squad today and said: “Callum McLelland is over his illness so he can come back into contention.

“I think our squad will be pretty similar.

“It was a tough game the other night so we have still got to get to the team-run to see who plays.

“We did go with four forwards against Wigan. It enabled us to share the workload around really well and not have any tired bodies on there. It worked all right for us.”

If half-back McLelland returns that will allow Kruise Leeming – who played as a makeshift No7 against Wigan – to return to his customary hooker role.