Richie Myler chomping at bit to make York Knights debut

The Knights pulled off a major coup to secure the 33-year-old’s services following his shock departure from Betfred Super League heavyweights Leeds Rhinos - for whom he still had a year left on his contract - during the off-season.

And having not featured since a season-ending injury in July, the half-back was delighted to be back out on the pitch.

“I’m loving it,” he enthused. “They’ve been very welcoming the boys, it’s been great. 

“I was chomping at the bit to get playing. 

“Fortunately, I’ve got one game under my belt, and I’m looking forward to the season starting now.”

Myler contributed two assists on his Knights debut, setting up Jimmy Keinhorst and Jesse Dee to score. (Image: Craig Hawkhead)

Myler’s long-awaited Knights debut was perhaps an unorthodox one, with the Knights’ ill-discipline rearing its ugly head in a 32-16 defeat.

Both loose forward Jordan Thompson and Australian centre Jesse Dee were sin-binned by referee Liam Rush before Will Dagger was given his marching orders for an alleged headbutt.

And there was still time for Thompson to be sin-binned for a second time before the half-time hooter.

“It was an interesting one to say the least!” the former Lance Todd Trophy winner explained.

“I think we had five cards by the end of the game. You had to laugh at one point because it was ridiculous.

“But it is what it is, the players have got to learn not to do that, and we’ve just got to get used to the new rules, the new interpretations of them. We made it hard for ourselves.

“But I enjoyed the game anyway, it was July the last time that I played for Leeds, but I was chomping at the bit to play, so I was glad to get out there.” 

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Myler, who could make his 400th career appearance if selected for Sunday's AB Sundecks 1895 Cup quarter final against Oldham, conceded that it had been hard to break down a Sheffield side likely to finish in the play-offs this season.

"I've played a fair few games, so I probably have been in that spot before," he recalled.

"I can't recall one that close to today, but we went through a spell at Leeds where everyone was just getting sin-binned all the time. It's an interesting one.

"It's hard to break down teams anyway in the modern game, just in the way that defensive systems are.

"If you've got 13 players it's hard enough to break them down, so to do it with 11, you become a lot easier to read because you're only attacking one way, so you have to come up with a few different ways of doing it.

"Ultimately then you also lose the energy battle if you defend with 11 men and you're running round like headless chickens at one point. It soon catches up with you in the game, and I felt that it did that at one point towards the end, we got blown out a little bit."