Professionalism rewarded as Leeds march on

The centre was one of eight different tryscorers as James Lowes’s side racked up a 64-3 success over the promoted Championship side last Friday night.

Leeds were always expected to win; their struggling opponents have now lost all four of their games and conceded more than 50 points per match.

But Griffin says the squad achieved its own aims and that leaves them in good stead as they seek to attain a fourth successive win when they head to Bristol in the B&I Cup on Sunday.

“It’s one of those where we just had to turn up and get the job done really,” he explained. “We had to turn up and match Ealing’s enthusiasm as we knew that’s all they would bring on to the field.

“To be fair, we didn’t play our best football throughout but we won which was the most important thing.”

Griffin, who joined from Castleford Tigers and debuted against Jersey last September, has played in all of Leeds’s games.

He sees plenty of potential to build upon last season’s exploits when they were only narrowly denied a place in the Championship final by overwhelming favourites Newcastle Falcons.

“We had one slip up against Nottingham and took that on the chin quite hard but then we’ve stepped up our game since then,” he said, pointing to wins at Cornish Pirates and last year’s beaten finalists Bedford Blues prior to Ealing’s visit.

“Going into the B&I Cup this week we’ve got three wins so we’ll look to push on now with the rest of the season.”

Griffin scored his first try on Friday – “the bit of glitter on top of what for me personally, was a bad game” – and he was impressed by young fly-half Alex Lozowski.

The 21-year-old has replaced injured Glyn Hughes for the last two weeks and contributed 24 points against Ealing and no little attacking class. “He was very sharp,” said Griffin. “He’s come in really well these last two weeks. We always knew he was a talent and he’s just been waiting for his chance. With Glyn getting injured he took it. He was great.”

Griffin, 23, is also enjoying working under Lowes, who took over from Diccon Edwards in the off-season. “Jimmy’s an absolutely top bloke,” he said. “He’s come in and his man-management is unbelievable. We already had a decent squad and I think he’s just kicked on from that what we had last year.”