Leeds Rhinos star 'honoured' by special squad number as youngsters ready to impress in women's Super League

The teenager, who played for the Dewsbury Moor community club before joining Leeds’ youth system, made her first team debut last August and scored three tries and six goals in four appearances during 2024. She started only once, but Caitlin Casey’s move to Saints created an opportunity and Walker was promoted into the number seven jersey in pre-season.

That’s an iconic number at Leeds and the scrum-half admitted: “I am really honoured and very pleased. I feel like it is one of the best numbers to be given in a Leeds team and I want to really work and prove why I’ve been given it.”

Casey was among a host of experienced players to leave Rhinos over the past 12 months and, rather than making signings from other clubs, Leeds replaced most of them with players from their academy ranks. A similar policy worked for the men’s team two decades ago and Walker has high hopes for the women’s new generation.

“The Leeds talent pathway is growing a lot and there’s a lot of really good players coming through,” she stressed. “A few of us have come together this year and that has helped a lot, not just for us, but for everyone. We work well because we are so used to each other.”

Rhinos return to York Community Stadium on Sunday (3pm) to face York Valkyrie, 15 days after a 44-14 loss to Wigan Warriors on the same ground in a Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup semi-final. Leeds opened their Super League campaign with a 20-20 draw at St Helens, the 2024 table-toppers, last Saturday.

York are back-to-back Grand Final winners, but lost narrowly to Saints in the last four of the Cup before an opening 40-6 league defeat at Wigan. Warriors are already emerging as the team to beat this season, but Walker reckons Leeds are capable of having a major say in the title race.

“I am really confident in the girls,” she insisted. “We proved how we can play and what we are capable of last week and we’ll take that into the York game. It is going to be a really tough game, but if we keep our energy up and work how we have been working together, I think we will be fine.”

With a patched up side, Rhinos dominated most of the match against Saints, leading 10-0 and 20-10. Though they couldn’t quite hang on for a win, Walker feels last week’s performance was a boost to morale following the Cup semi-final defeat.

“We were all very disappointed from the Wigan game with how we performed,” she conceded. “We could have done a lot better, but we stuck together and last week we had really good energy in attack and defence. Although we didn’t win, we showed what we are capable of.”

Bella Sykes, Evie Cousins and Connie Boyd could all return for Rhinos on Sunday after injury, but Grace Short has joined the casualty list.

Leeds Rhinos women (at York Valkyrie): from Stead, Cousins, Nuttall, Howard, Walker, Sykes, Bennett, Northrop, Lacey, Murray, Dainton, Bruce, Donnelly, Glynn, Greening, Whitehead, Field, Frain, Boyd, Blakey, Bryer.

Kick-off: Sunday, 3pm.