Patience in Powell leads Rhinos to final charge

If Leeds win the Powergen Challenge Cup in Cardiff today, their driving force, Gary Hetherington, will look back to the vital decision he made almost a year ago.

Leeds' early season promise had petered out into another campaign of under-achievement and Hetherington, the club's chief executive, decided it was time for a long, hard look at what was going wrong. Many Rhinos' fans at the time would have said that the problem lay with the coaching of Daryl Powell. Hetherington disagreed.

"It wasn't the coaching staff that was at fault,'' he says, "and so that left the players. They were all put on notice in July but what they had been producing wasn't good enough. Some, like Wayne McDonald, responded. Some didn't and they are no longer here."

With the different line-up of players this year, Hetherington has had his faith in Powell, the first player he signed for the infant Sheffield Eagles club half a lifetime ago, richly vindicated.

"Daryl has grown into the job, but part of that is giving him the right environment to work in. I was a coach for 12 years and I think we've created a coach's utopia. He does not have to worry about politics or anything behind the scenes. He can just get on with coaching.''

Powell has done that to great effect as Leeds have gone unbeaten through the early months of the season. He has had the advantage of being able to field a relatively settled side and will try to continue that today by taking a calculated risk on the fitness of Matt Adamson. The Australian second rower fractured his cheekbone and jaw in the early minutes of the memorable semi-final victory over St Helens and has had three titanium plates inserted in his face.

That is normally an injury that requires a six to eight-week recovery period, but Leeds have brought the surgeon who performed the operation to Cardiff in the hope that he will be able to give the go-ahead for Adamson to do what he desperately wants to do and play this afternoon.

Powell will not announce the verdict on that, or on the rather less chancy business of Matt Diskin's knee, until this morning. If both are passed fit, he is likely to go with the side that won the semi-final, which means another run in the pack for Chev Walker and no place, even on the substitutes' bench, for the exciting pace of Rob Burrow.

Three years ago, it was Kevin Sinfield who suffered the heartbreak of being left out of Leeds' Cup final team. He said at the time that he would not be happy until he played in a final and now, as Leeds' captain and arguably the player of the season so far, he gets his chance.

Along with Powell, Sinfield must take credit for the air of relaxation and composure in the Leeds camp during their build-up. When he recorded an interview for the BBC this week, he made a point of shaking hands and thanking the crew for their contribution. Brought up on Premiership footballers, they could hardly believe it.

Bradford have been a little more tense, not helped by the loss this week of one of their most important players, Stuart Fielden, with torn knee ligaments. Fielden is a marvel of the game. He has all the athleticism of the modern forward and yet demands to play a full 80 minutes like his predecessors in another era. His massive share of the work will have to be divided up among the others, with much being asked of Rob Parker or Richard Moore on the substitutes' bench.

The Bulls are reasonably confident that Michael Withers will be able to play, despite the stomach injury that has hampered him this season.

"That leaves me with some decisions to make about who to leave out,'' said their coach, Brian Noble, yesterday. "They are horrible decisions to make, the sort that give you grey hairs.''

No such problems for Lesley Vainikolo, who has had his hair dyed in Bradford colours, red and yellow, along with his natural black. "When you do that, you've got to take your playing ability up to another level as well and he's ready to do that,'' predicted his captain, Robbie Paul.

As for Noble's decisions, they are likely to come down to the composition of his bench, with Bradford, unusually for them, likely to go with just three props. Also on the bench will be Karl Pratt, one of the players weeded out at Headingley last year.

Victory today would be sweet revenge for him, but he is wise not to dwell on such thoughts. "I have to put all that out of my mind. I have to focus on this as a game like any other,'' he said. "After we win, I can enjoy it.''

In one nice touch, Bradford will be led out by their long-serving Welsh forward, Trevor Foster, who joined them from Newport in 1938 and is still their timekeeper. The promotion of the code in Wales is a subject close to his heart and he will be as keen as anyone for rugby league to present itself in the best possible light.

There will be no excuses about the elements; the roof at the Millennium Stadium is shut and will remain that way. "It takes all the luck out of it,'' Paul said. "It will just be decided on pure ability.''

Ironically, it was not to keep out the rain that the roof has been shut but to prevent those in the best seats being blinded by any sunlight. If the game is half as good as some so far this season – notably that Leeds versus St Helens semi-final – it will be a dazzling enough spectacle even indoors.