ROB BURROW will be looking to make an impact from the bench when he runs out for his sixth Grand Final tomorrow.
The ex-Great Britain scrum-half has been a key member of the Rhinos side over the last eight years but he has not started a match since the Challenge Cup semi-final against Castleford in August.
Leeds coach Brian McDermott, who yesterday added centre Kallum Watkins and forward Ali Lauitiiti to a 19-man squad for the Old Trafford clash with St Helens, is expected to stick with a half-back pairing of Danny McGuire and Kevin Sinfield for the ninth successive match.
Burrow said: “If you ask anybody, nobody would be happy to be on the bench. I want to start but it’s whatever is best for the team. That’s how it’s got to be. If I can add something from the bench, that’s what I will do. It would be the same with anybody in that situation.”
Burrow was a substitute for his first Grand Final, a 16-8 win over Bradford in 2004, with then coach Tony Smith preferring to start with McGuire and Sinfield, but he was in from the start a year later, when the Bulls gained their revenge, and was also in tandem with McGuire for the Rhinos’ hat-trick of victories over St Helens up to 2009.
With skipper Sinfield revelling in the stand-off role this year, Burrow has been forced to fill in both at scrum-half and hooker and his introduction from the bench has been an important factor in Leeds’ late-season surge.
He sparked a fightback in the Challenge Cup final against Wigan and played a key role in last Friday’s semi-final victory over Warrington which enabled Leeds to become the first team to reach the final from outside the top three.
“Any way I can add to this Leeds team, that’s fantastic,” Burrow added.
“I think everybody has been standing up at the moment and this is a chance to turn a disappointing season into a good season.”
Leeds have not looked back since their 28-18 defeat at Wembley and, despite not having had a free weekend all year, Burrow insists they have plenty of energy left for one last push for honours.
He said: “We’ve got loads left. It’s gone really quick this year. It’s been a crazy year for us.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs and more downsides than ever, but the fact is we’re in the Grand Final.”
Leeds’ fifth-place finish equalled their lowest since Super League’s first season in 1996, but that represented a significant improvement from July, when they were lying in eighth spot.
Burrow insists nothing changed to bring about the revival and that persistence paid off as the team gradually clicked under their new coach.
“There was nothing miraculous,” he said.
“We were trying what we’ve been doing all year and things are coming off for us at the moment.”
