{"id":339548,"date":"2025-12-28T16:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T16:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/339548\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T16:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T16:47:09","slug":"leeds-rhinos-recruit-sends-warning-to-super-league-players-after-referee-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/339548\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos recruit sends warning to Super League players after referee change"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Super\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

Leeds Rhinos signing Jeremiah Mata\u2019utia has told Super League players and fans to expect a faster product in 2026 with referees making changes to how the ruck is officiated.<\/p>\n

The Rhinos played their first pre-season game of the off-season on Boxing Day as Brad Arthur\u2019s side claimed an 18-10 win over Wakefield Trinity at Headingley Stadium, with Mata\u2019utia, Danny Levi and Ethan O\u2019Neill all getting their first run outs in blue and amber.<\/p>\n

The three new signings were included in what was a young Leeds side, with Wakefield boss Daryl Powell mixing his side up with some academy players, too. As such, there wasn\u2019t a huge amount for either head coach to take away from the game.<\/p>\n

However, one thing we did learn was that referees look set to be stricter with how the ruck is managed. Referee Marcus Griffiths awarded 13 set restarts during the friendly in West Yorkshire with 13 penalties being given, too, although not all of them were ruck infringements.<\/p>\n

As such, the game was played at a faster pace with the officials making an effort to tidy up the ruck and it comes following criticism from those down under for the way the ruck has been refereed in the Northern Hemisphere game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty fast,\u201d Mata\u2019utia said following his first appearance for the Rhinos<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s new rules coming in next year so it was great to get a taste of what Super League is going to be about and I can\u2019t wait to play here again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely felt fast. The new rules are always a bit harsh when it\u2019s played in a game like this so it\u2019s good to get used to it and work on it in training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mata\u2019utia made the move over from North Queensland Cowboys on a one-year deal after impressing in the Queensland Cup with Mackay Cutters. As such, the New Zealander is a long way from home during the festive period, but he was invited to spend Christmas Day with a familiar face in ex-Rhinos and current Cowboys Women outside back Fran Goldthorp.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big shout out to Fran Goldthorp, she invited me and my partner to have Christmas dinner with their family, so a big shout out to them and really grateful for having us over for dinner,\u201d Mata\u2019utia said.<\/p>\n

On his pre-season goal, the prop added: \u201cI\u2019m really hoping to try and make round one and be an in and out player for Brad, continue to work hard for him and build my game as I go on.\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":"Leeds Rhinos signing Jeremiah Mata\u2019utia has told Super League players and fans to expect a faster product in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-339548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339548","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=339548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}