{"id":341218,"date":"2025-12-29T16:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T16:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/341218\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T16:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T16:07:09","slug":"leeds-rhinos-enter-contract-talks-with-key-man-amid-world-cup-ambition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/341218\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos enter contract talks with key man amid World Cup ambition"},"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

Leeds Rhinos are in contract talks with a key member of their first team squad.<\/p>\n

Hooker Jarrod O\u2019Connor was Super League\u2019s top tackler last term with 1,044 and has been awarded Rhinos<\/a>\u2019 number nine jersey for the 2026 campaign, despite the off-season signing of Samoan international Danny Levi from NRL outfit Canberra Raiders.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old, who made his debut in 2020, has played 124 times for Leeds and is entering the final year of his current deal.<\/p>\n

That means he is free to talk to rival clubs, but confirming discussions are on-going with Rhinos, O\u2019Connor insisted: \u201cWe\u2019re not in a rush.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s the best Super League club to be at; it\u2019s just talking to the club and not rushing into it, but [we are] getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor has also revealed he has eyes on a place in England\u2019s squad for the 2026 World Cup, to be played in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be pushing myself to get into that team,\u201d he vowed. \u201cI am obviously aiming to be the best nine in Super League, which is a big aim of mine for this year \u2013 and getting into that World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I think it can be achievable. If the team\u2019s playing well that will help me a lot; I think the players around me will make it possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor was among a scattering of senior players who featured when Leeds Rhinos began their pre-season campaign with an 18-10 home win against Wakefield Trinity on Boxing Day.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe first half of pre-season is done now and I feel like we are building really well.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally and as a team, we are looking a bit sharper having had another pre-season under [coach] Brad Arthur, which is only going to benefit us going into next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of his rise up the squad number order from 14 to nine, O\u2019Connor added: \u201cI was quite happy with it. I felt like, after last season, I\u2019ve earned it and it\u2019s a good positive going into next year.\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 are in contract talks with a key member of their first team squad. Hooker Jarrod O\u2019Connor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-341218","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\/341218","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=341218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}