Brad Arthur has revealed that new Leeds Rhinos signing Jake Connor will split his time between the centre and half-back positions during Boxing Day's clash against Wakefield Trinity. The Rhinos host the Super League newcomers in their first trial match before the new season, with Connor one of five new faces that will run out at Headingley.

Arthur confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Connor will be joined by Ryan Hall, Maika Sivo, Cooper Jenkins, and Keenan Palasia, with Leeds set to be without Lachie Miller, who has a hamstring injury, and Morgan Gannon, who won't be risked after picking up a mild Achilles injury.

The Rhinos boss confirmed the setback for Gannon, who has recovered from concussion issues. However, he won't feature in the festive challenge despite returning to training this week.

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Asked about Connor, Arthur revealed that the maverick talent, who has featured for Huddersfield Giants and Hull FC in recent weeks, has been progressing well in training, with Ash Handley and Alfie Edgell gunning for the full-back spot.

"He (Jake) is going to spend a bit of time in the centres and a bit of time in the halves," Arthur said. "He's gotten better each and every week with his running, his training, and his conditioning. He's getting his body right, and he's getting better and better.

"He said to me the other day that he feels the fittest and the best he's been for a while. The good thing about it is that he was probably a fair way off the pack when he first started, but he's bridged that gap closer and closer. He's training well. He does a lot of good things with the ball too—a lot of good things.

"I'm very excited. It will be good for them all to get a feel for the competition here, playing in different weather and temperature. It will be a big learning curve for those guys, and they're looking forward to having that experience in a game where it's important, but it's not worth two points. They will get a good feel of the style of footy and the environment that they are going to have to play in."

As for the injuries, Arthur continued: "Lachie and a couple of the young blokes are still recovering. Lachie is his hamstring. He won't be available, and the other one who is not quite ready yet is Morgan Gannon. He was on track. He was training reasonably well and getting himself ready, but his Achilles has just flared up a little bit, so we'll take precaution there and rest him for a little while.

"Sometimes they can warm up, and you can run them out, so we've just decided to pull him off his legs for a week or two. He ran okay today (Wednesday) but it's just too short a turnaround now to risk and put him out there. We just want to get more training into him before he plays. It's disappointing for him as he wants to get out there.

"He's over the concussion. He was training well, and his contact was good. There were no signs of him being cautious or overprotective of himself. He was getting himself in there and being nice and physical. We've had a pretty physical pre-season in the contact room. I like him. He's got a good level of skill, and he knows his way around the field. He got thrown into Super League in different circumstances than most, but the pre-season that he's done now will help him."

Gearing up for his first full season at the club, Arthur is expecting a different challenge against Trinity, with the Australian head coach set for a new learning experience, playing so early into pre-season. He added: "It's been tough. We're into week six now; it's something that's been a bit different for me, but it's been a good experience and a good learning curve to get a team up and ready for a game six weeks in.

"We've usually got six/seven weeks before Christmas and then five or six weeks after Christmas before you play a game, but I like that fact, and I've learned a bit about that, but the staff have done a good job in terms of keeping the players healthy and pushing them to the limits but without going too far. We've got some blokes returning from rehab, so fingers crossed we get through the trial matches. We want to start with a healthy squad come round one.

"I'm excited about it now. It's a tradition (playing on Boxing Day) that has happened here for a long time, and I feel like I've gained some learning out of it having to prepare them and get them ready to play. We're looking forward to seeing where we are at.

"Most guys will only get 40 to 50 minutes for their first hit out. You can do all the training you like, but you don't know where you're at until you play, so at least we're getting a good early look at where we're at, and then we've got a couple of weeks after that to try and maintain some good areas and improve some areas that need fixing into that second trial."

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