Rugby League: Leeds' Murray men in a hurry

Dave Hadfield talks to the new coach of a club setting out on another year of hope

IT HAS been a long seven weeks for Leeds. The penalty for falling to Castleford at the first fence in the Challenge Cup has been a long and frustrating hiatus in a season which, like every other, is supposed to mark the breakthrough for the men of Headingley.

Leeds start their Super League campaign at home to Warrington this afternoon - and no side is more impatient for meaningful action. "It has seemed a very, very long wait," said their prolific winger Paul Sterling. "Especially after losing a match we controlled from start to finish."

But that has been the story for Leeds for as long as their supporters can remember; so close to achieving something, but never quite there. There are reasons for believing that it can be different this time, but then there always are. In Graham Murray, they have a coach with obvious credentials. Anyone who could turn the doomed Hunter Mariners into a winning side has got something worth having.

By Leeds' traditional standards, the additions to the playing staff are modest. There is Marc Glanville, a solid loose forward who is unlucky not to have played at representative level in Australia, and Brad Godden, a versatile back from the Mariners who has never quite fulfilled his youthful promise.

Both play today, along with Darren Fleary, one of the batch of players taken on sale-or-return from Keighley last season. Daryl Powell, another of that consignment, is on the bench. There has been more action in the departure lounge, with Murray making some snap judgements on who will and will not be of use to him, in order to whittle the squad down to manageable proportions. The most notable leave-taking is that of Phil Hassan, Leeds' best player for much of last year, who will spend the season on loan to Salford.

That move has surprised many, but it is Murray's belief that Godden will be the ideal foil for the enigmatic Richie Blackmore. He played successfully alongside the equally frustrating Kevin Iro for Hunter, and the theory is that the chemistry can work again.

Much will also depend on Iestyn Harris, who plays this afternoon against the club that sold him for pounds 350,000 a year ago. One of the reasons for his leaving Warrington was that they would not play him in his favourite stand-off role, so it is ironic that he will face them as a full-back. It has not really been a winter of rejection for Harris, however, as Murray has made him captain.

"He is hugely important to us," said his coach. "He can make a tremendous impact; at full-back, I just hope he has a little bit more room to move."

Murray's own room for manoeuvre has been limited by a couple of irritating absences. Dean Lawford is missing after damaging his ankle, while Barrie McDermott will be out for the first five matches of the season after being sent off for fighting in a less than amicable friendly at York. Fleary gets his chance to impress in his absence, while Terry Newton replaces Lawford.