Academy Spotlight: Harry Smith

This weekend sees Leeds Rhinos Under-18s take to the field in round four of the Academy Championship as they take on Hull FC at the University of Hull on Saturday afternoon.

Although the Rhinos have been handed a tough start to the season, head coach Tony Smith continues to nurture a young side that mostly contains players in their first year at the Under-18s level. Half back Harry Smith is one of the talents that has played plenty of minutes this year and speaking earlier this week, he reinforced that the squad is using the challenges of the season so far as key learning points that will benefit the team in the season ahead and further into the future.

"It's been a bit daunting going up from Scholarship straight into playing a lot of minutes for the Academy," he said. "It's a completely different story. I know we're not getting the best results at the minute but everyone's growing and getting that experience and it'll set us up for next year when we're the older lads, and going forward."

"It's been a bit of a slow start to the season, losing our first three games, but we're working hard to improve every week. We've got our combinations going a bit more, and we're feeling better about it. We're a young group and we showed that against Wigan when 13 of the 17 were all first years. I'm excited for this week to get back to it and I think we're going to do well."

As a half back learning from a head coach who won silverware with Castleford and Wigan, as well as represented his country, in the same position on the field, Harry has a good mentor in Tony Smith. The Under-18s Academy boss has taken the former West Bowling player under his wing in 2024, and Harry Smith said that he has been working closely to adapt his game into being a running threat.

"Tony has been in the halves before himself which has been really helpful to learn from. He knows what he's talking about having got the experience of being a Super League player, I've been taking on everything he's been saying," said the young Rhino. "I'm trying to implement it in every game I've been playing because that's the level that I would like to end up.

"He wants me to be more of a running threat and I feel like from the Cas game and then going into the Wigan game, I did a lot more of that and made myself more of a threat. As a half back, you want to be guiding your team around the pitch, but I do like the running side. I feel like I'm just getting better every game."

Although he has his head coach guiding him through this stage of his junior career, Smith's progression in the blue and amber started two years ago in the Rhinos Scholarship. Scouted from Dewsbury Celtic in 2022 alongside the likes of Presley Cassell, he only missed two games under Mark Butterill and his staff as Leeds only lost twice in the twelve games Smith featured in over two years.

It's a time he remembers fondly, and credits the work done by the coaching staff for helping him make the next step in his career. "When it came to my first Academy game, it wasn't a shock because the experience I got from the Scholarship was really helped," he explained.

"Particularly that first year, I played a lot of games in the first year and only lost one game, but it still prepared me for what the physicality is like from that year above. It allowed the group of us who moved up into the Academy to play lots of minutes together and work on the connections."

Pre-season presented another opportunity for Smith too; a chance to train under Rohan Smith and around the first team. The likes of Alfie Edgell, Tom Nicholson-Watton and Ned McCormack, who recently made his club and Super League debut, have been beneficiaries of regular training sessions with the first team squad, and Smith said that being around the players has given him plenty of confidence.

"It's really exciting having that training experience with first team. It makes you feel that sense of security and that Rohan's got our back with stuff and he sees us as the future of the club. Us younger lads have shown that we're a group that can work well together. It's nice that he can see that and bring us all through together, as well as allow me to see the next step in my career which has been really good."

This weekend's fixture provides another challenge for the young Rhinos, but Smith said that spirits remain high in the camp as they know what a win would do to kickstart their season.

"It's a crucial game. We don't want to be seen as walkovers, it's not nice losing these games on the bounce, but it has really given us a bit of grit about it. We need to get our heads down and work really hard. 

"I feel like we've trained really well so far. I feel like we're just getting our heads down now, really realising how important it is to work hard for each other and just have a bit of grit about it."