Scruton takes the Bull by the horns (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Scruton takes the Bull by the horns

7:10am Thursday 25th June 2009 in

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Improving Nick Scruton returns to Leeds Rhinos tomorrow night believing he is now dealing with the pressure of being a Bull.

The prop goes back to Head-ingley Carnegie for the first time since leaving the Super League champions.

He aims to help complete an unlikely double over his former side, having featured when Bradford stunned Leeds at Odsal over Easter.

But Scruton – so often a bench player with Rhinos – concedes he has only recently started to show his best form, having initially struggled to cope with being one of his new club’s main men.

I know the team can’t go forward unless me and Lynchy get us moving so there is more responsibility on me

Nick Scruton

“I’m fairly happy with how it’s been going personally but I think it’s been about time I put in a couple of performances,” said the front-rower, who has started the last seven games and proved a real destructive force against Saints on Sunday.

“I think it’s taken me a while to get used to that responsibility.

“I’ve got to put those sorts of performances in every week. At Leeds, there were people like Kylie (Leuluai), Gareth Ellis and JP (Jamie Peacock), so if you weren’t quite at the races you always knew they were, always doing it consistently.

“Now I’m at Bradford, I’ve got to go out and play well every week like those guys do.

“I know the team can’t go forward unless me and Lynchy get us moving so there is more responsibility on me.”

But Scruton has really upped his game of late. He roughed up Saints’ front-rowers Bryn Hargreaves and James Graham immediately last weekend and was huge charging forward as Bulls built up a 14-4 lead.

“You make goals at the start of the week; one of mine was to get in their faces right from the off and stop their go-forward,” explained Scruton.

“Once Saints get on the front foot they are a tough team to stop as we found out later.

“We tried our best to stop them but we saw what happens if they get a chance.”

It was no coincidence that the hosts’ intensity dipped when Scruton departed for his first breather and the Bulls went on to lose 44-18.

But he saw enough in the performance to sense winning at Leeds is not out of their reach.

“That game left us really, properly annoyed,” added the 24-year-old. “We know we’ve missed a chance against Saints. We were the best team for quite long periods. It was just that 15-minute spell at the end of the first half and ten minutes at the end of the second where they hurt us – they scored seven tries in 20 minutes or so.

“We came away peeved that we’d not done the job. We felt we really could have achieved it and it would have been a massive result to build on.

“We know now what we have to do differently against Leeds this week and everybody wants to put it right.”

Rhinos routed top-two challengers Harlequins 48-14 in London last Saturday to hint they could be rediscovering their own quality.

“They have had that one good performance but by their own admission they’ve not turned up this season,” said Scruton.

“They’re not happy themselves and haven’t been at their best. If we can get in that arm-wrestle – Harlequins never did put Leeds under any pressure – then hopefully we can carry on, grind out the result like we did against Rhinos at Odsal and do the double over them.

“I can’t wait for it to be honest. It will be a bit strange – I’ve had a couple of texts from some of the lads telling me to make sure I go in the right changing rooms and stuff! – but all my family are coming out for me and we’re confident of getting the result.”