{"id":304264,"date":"2025-12-08T02:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304264\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T02:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:29:13","slug":"jeremiah-matautia-explains-leeds-rhinos-switch-and-makes-nrl-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/304264\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremiah Mata’utia explains Leeds Rhinos switch and makes NRL admission"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Leeds\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Man mountain Jeremiah Mata\u2019utia has revealed what he hopes to get out of his early move to Leeds Rhinos.<\/p>\n

Mata\u2019utia, who was born in Otahuhu, New Zealand, played second-tier rugby for Townsville Blackhawks and Mackay Cutters and was part of NRL outfit North Queensland Cowboys\u2019 squad before signing for Rhinos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He is contracted until the end of next year, with Leeds holding an option for 2026. And though he hasn\u2019t featured at the highest level, the 6ft 5ins (1.98 metres) prop reckons a stint in England can take his game to new heights.<\/p>\n

Mata\u2019utia \u2013 who at 21 will be one of the youngest imports in Super League \u2013 said: \u201cI\u2019ve heard there\u2019s a bit of chat about NRL people coming here as a kind of retirement, but I see it as an opportunity to get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy focus is the here and now and to be my best for Leeds Rhinos, but eventually I do want to go back and play in the NRL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have come here to get better. Brad [Arthur] is a good coach, he has experience in the NRL and he has come here and done really well. I am hoping I can learn a lot from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cHopefully it will all go well. The boys have been talking about the crowds here, they say Headingley is a good crowd and wherever you go here they are good fans so I am excited to experience that.<\/p>\n

\u201cPre-season is pretty much the hardest thing you do in your footy career, but being around the boys has been good and Brad has been good. Everyone has been a big help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leeds Rhinos man looks ahead to the Boxing Day challenge<\/p>\n

Mata\u2019utia could pull on a Leeds jersey for the first time in the annual Boxing Day festive challenge against Wakefield Trinity at AMT Headingley.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a bit of a shock to me,\u201d he said of playing the day after Christmas. \u201cI\u2019ve never experienced that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am used to having Christmas and New Year off, but it will be good to have a change. I\u2019ll just have to have a bit less food on Christmas Day, but I am pretty excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mackay, who Mata\u2019utia featured for 18 times last season, are coached by former Rhinos favourite Adam Cuthbertson.<\/p>\n

The Australian forward was a member of Leeds\u2019 2015 treble-winning side, played in the 2017 Super League Grand Final success and made his last appearance for Rhinos in a Wembley victory five years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t know I was coming here,\u201d Mata\u2019utia revealed. \u201cI didn\u2019t know he played for Leeds until I watched a game back and saw him play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like he was a pretty good player and he is a good coach. He said congratulations and told me what a good club this is and the history behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man mountain Jeremiah Mata\u2019utia has revealed what he hopes to get out of his early move to Leeds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-304264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}