St Helens vs Leeds Rhinos: Sky Live Super League team news
Watch St Helens take on Leeds Rhinos live on Sky Sports Arena from 7pm on Friday.
By Sky Sports Rugby League
Last Updated: 21/06/19 10:45am
Tom Briscoe is enjoying working Richard Agar again as the former Hull FC head coach tries to turn around the fortunes of Leeds Rhinos.
Agar was named interim head coach at the Rhinos following the club's decision to sack Dave Furner last month, overseeing two wins and two defeats in Super League going into this Friday's game away to leaders St Helens live on Sky Sports.
Last Friday's 23-14 defeat at home to Wigan Warriors came after the team had won back-to-back top-flight games for the first time in 2019 and ex-Hull winger Briscoe believes Agar's appointment has had an impact.
"Richard was one of my first coaches at Hull, so it's nice to get back with him," Briscoe said. "He's brought a bit of a different vibe to the place again since Dave left and we seem to be reaping the rewards of that at the minute.
"Over the last two weeks we've put in a couple of good performances, so hopefully we can build on that and take a bit of confidence into what will be a very tough game away to Saints.
"We're looking more of a team now, and we need to build on that because Saints are the best attacking team and we know we need to be on our guard there."
Agar welcomes Matt Parcell back into his 19-man squad for the trip to St Helens, with the hooker returning from a two-match suspension.
He replaces Tui Lolohea, who is away with the Tonga national team for their mid-season Test against New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Saints head coach Justin Holbrook makes two changes to his 19-man squad from the one which overcame Huddersfield Giants 38-2 last Friday.
Regan Grace returns in place of fellow winger Adam Swift and Matty Lees comes in for Joseph Paulo. Jack Ashworth is cleared to play as well after his one-match penalty notice was overturned.
Saints go into the match having rebounded from the previous week's shock defeat away to London Broncos in emphatic style, but full-back Jonny Lomax cautioned there are still areas to work on.
"We just want to take it week to week," Lomax said. "That's what we've always spoken about as a group and we're trying to build on it all of the time.
"We wanted a reaction after the previous week. I feel as though we got that, but I feel there are still areas for us to improve on where we could have been a bit more clinical.
"That's something we'll try to address moving onto Leeds."
St Helens 19-man squad: Jonny Lomax, Tommy Makinson, Kevin Naiqama, Mark Percival, Regan Grace, Theo Fages, Alex Walmsley, Luke Thompson, Zeb Taia, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Morgan Knowles, Kyle Amor, Dominique Peyroux, Matty Lees, Jack Ashworth, Aaron Smith, James Bentley, Lachlan Coote, Matty Costello
Leeds Rhinos 19-man squad: Jack Walker, Tom Briscoe, Kallum Watkins, Konrad Hurrell, Ash Handley, Richie Myler, Adam Cuthbertson, Matt Parcell, Brad Singleton, Trent Merrin, Brad Dwyer, Liam Sutcliffe, Brett Ferres, Mikolaj Oledzki, Cameron Smith, James Donaldson, Harry Newman, Wellington Albert, Ava Seumanufagai