Leeds Rhinos star makes 'improve' vow as Women's Super League play-off race heats up
England forward Bella Sykes says Leeds Rhinos’ women are growing in form and confidence, despite an agonising defeat last time out.
Rhinos face Huddersfield Giants at AMT Headingley on Sunday (3pm), nine days after a last-gasp 22-20 home loss to St Helens. Leeds hit back from 16-6 down to lead 20-16 with one play remaining when former Rhinos half-back Caitlin Casey, in the wing position, touched down to level the scores and Faye Gaskin won it with a conversion from the touchline.
It was a heartbreaking result for Rhinos, who had what looked like being a clinching touchdown ruled out on video evidence and missed with a penalty which would have given them a six-point lead moments before Casey’s try. “I feel we were unlucky in that game,” Sykes said.
“For the majority of it we were definitely the better team. There were times when we needed to be better, but we can reflect on that game and take a lot of learnings from it. I think it just shows we are not far off from where we want to be and hopefully next time we’ll be on the winning side. Everyone’s really positive and knows we are moving in the right direction.”
Sykes is confident Rhinos can go toe to toe with the likes of Wigan Warriors, York Valkyrie and Saints at the business end of the campaign. She insisted: “That’s what we are building towards. We had a few players leave and it has taken a while to get us gelling as a team, but I think each week we are improving and showing we are going to perform in those bigger game when we need to in the semi-finals and finals.”
Signed from Giants two years ago, Sykes was Betfred Women’s Super League’s young player of the year in 2024, but had a disrupted start to the current campaign. She said: “I have had a couple of recurring hamstring tears - I tore it before the game [England against Australia] in Las Vegas and played through there and got back fit, then re-tore it in the captain’s run before we were due to play York away. I am feeling really good now, it has taken some time to get back right, but hopefully I am getting into the sawing of it now and finding some form again.”
Giants are fifth in the table, one place and a point behind Rhinos. They were within seconds of beating champions York earlier this season and Sykes is expecting a hard-fought encounter. “I always look forward to playing Huddersfield and they have found a bit of form in the last couple of weeks, so it should be a really good game,” she said.
“They are definitely a team on the rise and they are trying to compete with the top four teams this year so we know we have to be at our best to get the win. The more teams that do compete, the better, but we just have to make sure we focus on ourselves and have a good response on the back of last Friday’s game.”
Rhinos’ under-19s take on Giants in a curtain-raiser tomorrow, kicking-off at 12.45pm.