Super League: How Leeds Rhinos aim to make a Canberra Raiders half-back reunion help them in 2022

Aidan Sezer and Blake Austin will be lining up together again for Leeds in 2022

Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer may be a new half-back partnership for Leeds Rhinos in 2022, but for the pair of them it will reconvene a relationship from their days at Canberra Raiders.

The duo played alongside each other at GIO Stadium for three seasons from 2016 to 2018, with their partnership being broken up when Austin swapped the NRL for Super League to join Warrington Wolves.

Sezer followed him to these shores in 2020 with Huddersfield Giants, earning a nomination for Man of Steel during the pandemic-disrupted campaign, but after two seasons playing on rival teams, they are now quickly getting to grips with being team-mates again as the Rhinos prepare for 2022.

"Just the fact they've played together before has given them a head start rather than coming in cold and having to learn a team's principles and style of play and build up those relationships around them," Leeds head coach Richard Agar said.

"The fact they've already got that relationship makes that communication and dialogue a lot easier. They've both had a really positive contribution…and they've got on the same page very, very quickly.

"They've come from different clubs and very different styles of rugby and joined a club with probably another different style."

Austin and Sezer enjoyed a fruitful partnership at Canberra, guiding them to within one match of an NRL Grand Final appearance in 2016 only to be edged out by two points against eventual runners-up Melbourne Storm in the preliminary finals.

Just the fact they've played together before has given them a head start rather than coming in cold and having to learn a team's principles and style of play and build up those relationships around them.

Leeds coach Richard Agar on Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer

Agar has not spent too much time reviewing clips of what worked for them both during those years in Australia, but knowledge of what they can do from their respective spells at Warrington and Huddersfield has fed in to plans for the upcoming season.

The pair have been giving the head coach and his staff plenty of feedback too, while also benefiting from the ideas being implemented by four-time Super League-winning half-back and Rhinos assistant coach Sean Long.

"It's probably collaborative," Agar said. "We knew a little bit about them before they got here, because we'd seen them play in this competition before - which, again, was a bit of an added factor in why it would be great to get these guys.

"We've stuck them on the field, we get feedback from those guys. We thought we understood what may work for both players in the roles they have, they're comfortable with that, and they feed back, and we feed back to them.

Sezer has been showing some promising signs in pre-season training with Leeds

"In terms of finding that with the ball, that has been the easy bit. Both of them have got some terrific attacking skills and traits, and Aidan's control has been brilliant for us."

Sezer and former Great Britain tourist Austin are likely to get their first run-out together in Rhinos shirts in the Boxing Day pre-season match at home to Wakefield Trinity, with the Headingley faithful no doubt eager to see their attacking skills come to the fore.

For Agar, however, the biggest focus in training so far has been getting them up to speed on what happens out of possession, perfecting how they are going to work with the three-quarters outside them and second rows inside them on their respective sides of the defensive line.

"There is the attacking side of it, but I think defensively for us immediately is what we've got to work on," Agar said.

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"When you start talking about edge defence, teams defend in different ways and individuals defend in different ways on an edge.

"Just getting the understanding, synergy and getting them on the same page as edge-four units is something we'll have to work pretty hard on before the start of the season."

Sky Sports will once again be broadcasting extensive coverage of the Betfred Super League in 2022, including 25 live games across the first 11 rounds of the season between February and April. Leeds' second game of the campaign away to Wigan Warriors on Friday, February 18 is among those to feature.