Leeds Rhinos aim to bounce back from Challenge Cup woes, target unbeaten run, set Grand Final goal

Rhinos suffered their third successive loss in a major final when they slumped 22-0 to St Helens at Wembley last Saturday. Sunday’s Betfred Women’s Super League fixture at Laund Hill is Leeds’ first chance to get back on the horse and long-serving three-quarter Sophie Robinson admitted they are desperate to make amends for the Challenge Cup failure.

“It has been a really tough week,” Robinson said. “Everyone’s really disappointed, it takes a lot out of you emotionally, but we have had a positive week. We’ve got around each other as a team and I think that’s probably what we’ll take into Sunday, making sure we stick together and we come back from [last week].”

Rhinos have lost just twice this season, both to Saints and Robinson stressed they are desperate to prove the Wembley effort wasn’t their true selves. “We didn’t put out the best performance and we are better than that,” she vowed.

“We have got to come together and show everyone what we are like as a team. There’s still a lot to play for and that’s one thing that’s motivating us. We’ve still got potentially two trophies on offer so we’ve just got to make sure we are working to our potential now.”

Rhinos reached the Grand Final after last year’s Wembley defeat and repeating that - with a winning performance this time - is a realistic goal, Robinson reckons. She added: “We’ve got a team that can compete against Saints and York and I think if we do stick together and stick to the processes there’s a chance we could go unbeaten until the end of the year. To win the league and be in the Grand Final is on everyone’s mind.”

Of what went wrong last week, Robinson reflected: “It was probably the worst performance of the year on the worst occasion to play like that. We didn’t stick to our game plan and we had too many errors and we were just quiet as a team.

“I think if we had stuck to the game plan we’d probably have seen a different result, but it was uncharacteristic of us to play like that. We can’t play like that if we want to win the league and compete in finals so we know we’ve got a lot to fix up.”

Cup finalists Bethan Dainton (shoulder), Ruby Enright (hip) and Beth Lockwood (back) will miss Sunday’s game through injury, so Elychia Watson comes back into the squad alongside academy players Grace Short and Tilly Jae Brown.

Rhinos women (at Huddersfield): from Robinson, Beevers, Hardcastle, Butcher, Casey, Hornby, Bennett, Northrop, Hoyle, Sykes, Moxon, Murray, Whitehead, Field, Cousins, Greening, Watson, Macmillan, Donnelly, Brown, Short.

Kick-off: Sunday, 2pm.