Calderwood's eye for tries gives Leeds cutting edge

Rhinos winger has the speed, sidestep and savvy to bamboozle local rivals Bradford in Challenge Cup final on Saturday

For a late developer in the game of rugby league, Mark Calderwood has moved rapidly to make up for lost time.

The Leeds winger, who plays in the Powergen Challenge Cup final against Bradford at Cardiff on Saturday is the leading try-scorer in the country, with 12 so far this season, and yet he had no interest in the sport until he was into his teens and even then struggled to make an impact.

Calderwood was born in London, but his family moved to Leeds when he was a three-year-old. "I wasn't really interested in rugby until I was about 13. I was more of a football supporter, following Newcastle for some reason.

"I don't even think Leeds particularly wanted to sign me for their Academy. Then they were going to sack me, but I scored a couple of tries in a match and they kept me on."

Calderwood was still trying to make his way in the Academy side when he went to Murrayfield with the first team in 2000 – the last time Leeds were in the Cup final. It was the experience that awakened his ambition.

"As a young player watching that, I just wanted to get on the field. I decided there and then that I would work as hard as I could to get on the pitch for an occasion like that."

Three years later, Calderwood, now 21, is there, as an automatic selection for a Leeds team yet to be beaten this season. He has no doubt that the difference is in the blend.

"We're a hungrier team. There are a lot of older guys who can have a word about what it's like to win trophies and what you have to do to win them."

Two of those senior players, Gary Connolly and David Furner, were in the Wigan side that lifted the Cup last year, but it is Connolly's proximity to him on the pitch which has been the biggest help to Calderwood. "Everybody looks up to him for what he's done in his career," he says.

Calderwood's career is still in its formative stages, but it could turn out to be just as glittering. From a nervous and rather mistake-prone teenager when he made his first team debut, he has developed into a much more assured performer, supplementing his natural pace with more steadiness and know-how.

"I did take a bit of criticism, but people can say what they want to say. I know what I can do, although I know I've still got a lot of work to do on some aspects of my game."

Although he is known for his innovative try-scoring celebrations – and he has one up his sleeve, should it be required at the Millennium Stadium – the Rhinos make a point of celebrating a good piece of defensive work from him almost as enthusiastically.

Having already played for England A last year, he is now being talked about as a Great Britain prospect. "There aren't that many British wingers around. They often seem to play centres there, so the chance could be there if I carry on playing well for Leeds."

It is, he says, an easy team to play well in. "It's a team in which everyone wants to win a trophy so badly. There are a lot of people thinking the chance might never come around again."

Nobody at Headingley, however, will need reminding about the intensity of the local rivalry with Bradford and how the Bulls have generally had the better of it in the games that matter – including that 2000 Cup final – in recent years.

"We see ourselves as the underdogs," Calderwood says, despite Leeds' unblemished record this season. "Bradford have been up there for a number of years and, although they have one or two missing, we know that, whatever side they put out, it will be very strong."

One player he expects to face, despite recent injury problems, is Bradford's Great Britain second-rower and his neighbour, Jamie Peacock.

"We go to the same pub. In fact, he's helped me a lot with advice about the game. I reckon he's definitely going to be fit to play."

So should Calderwood. The Millennium Stadium, with its roof closed, gives a guaranteed dry track for wingers and his speed and footwork makes him ideally qualified to benefit. Only once in the past, he says, has he been nervous before a match.

"That was for an Academy Grand Final three years ago. I know that this, with over 70,000 people there, is going to be something different again.

"To score the winning try in a game like that would be something I'd always be proud of."

And he has his celebration mapped out, just in case it is needed.