It has been some ride for Leeds Rhinos who’ve gone from on-field bickering and relegation fears to unexpectedly making the Super League Grand Final.
But their Australian prop Matt Prior, 35, nearly missed it all after almost heading home instead. Leeds, second bottom at Easter, will cap a remarkable tale if they beat defending champions St Helens at Old Trafford on Saturday. But Prior was “close” to packing in all together ahead of last season due to the Covid lockdowns.
He admitted: “It was difficult. That first period was really tough being away from family and friends. I was in a small apartment and going in and out of lockdowns, not being able to do much in general and then being stuck in there every day just wasn’t ideal.
“I was getting sick of it and I did just want to go home. At that time Australia hadn’t really gone into lockdowns so I was looking at Instagram and felt like I was missing out. I was pretty keen to go and was pretty close to doing it.
“But this now definitely justifies my decision not to. If I’d gone home and seen the boys in a Grand Final, I probably would have thought I should have stayed. The fact we’re here now hopefully we can win it and make it all the more sweeter that I made that decision."
After winning the NRL with St George Illawarra (2010) and Cronulla (2016), Prior - who confirmed today he will retire when his Rhinos contract concludes at the end of next season - could also join an elite group of players to claim Grand Final glories in both hemispheres. Only 15 players have done so before, including Kangaroos hooker Danny Buderus with Newcastle Knights 2001 and ten years later at Leeds. And Prior puts so much of Rhinos’ recovery down to new coach Rohan Smith who arrived in May when Leeds were dreading the drop rather than making a bid for Old Trafford.
He admitted: “At that stage, we were just thinking we need to start winning some games just so we don’t get relegated. We started knocking them off one by one and here we are. Ever since Rohan’s come, it’s been a real change.
"We’ve got real resilience and that’s Rohan. He’s got just a really relaxed attitude. Nothing’s ever really a problem. Before Rohan was here we’d bicker a bit on the field if things weren’t absolutely perfect. Things aren’t ever perfect now but there’s no bickering. We just play for the next job.”
And now Leeds are just 80 minutes away from their first Super League title since 2017. Ahead of his first visit to the Theatre of Dreams, Prior added: “In a way we probably don’t have any real right to be here after the way we started. But we never gave up and it makes it a little more special.”
