Paul Aiton: Leeds Rhinos hooker suffers broken arm

Chris Sandow endured a debut to forget for Warrington Wolves but head coach Tony Smith was quick to leap to his new man’s defence.

Smith admitted Warrington could not live with Leeds, who moved two points clear at the top of Super League.

The visitors opened the scoring with just over 10 minutes on the clocked as Kevin Penny spotted a gap, sprinting for the line to give Warrington the lead.

But Leeds responded immediately through Kallum Watkins’ 18th try of the season and were in a commanding position at halftime after further scores from Tom Briscoe, Zac Hardaker and Danny McGuire.

“There’s that much more money and salary cap in Australia and rugby union that it’s hard to entice people to come when they’re in their prime”, added Smith. “I think he’ll be a real success”.

“They were out of sorts and things didn’t go their way, but they will be a different prospect this time”. To quote (former Huddersfield and St Helens coach) Nathan Brown, “If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, it’s a duck”.

“If we get to the stage where we’re not going to call those plays a knock-on, it’s not rugby league and changes the whole face of the game”.

McDermott said: “Sandow is a dynamic player and a new player at this time of the year always freshens things up and puts everyone else on their toes”.

“He’s got a fantastic attitude”.

Leeds hooker Paul Aiton will miss the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup final after scans confirmed that he suffered a broken arm during the Rhinos’ 49-10 Super League win over Warrington on Friday night.

“We need some of that in our team, he’ll be a real boost and he has been already – the players have got a real lift from him in training already”.