Leeds Rhinos women 'fired up' to end 'successful year' with Grand Final appearance v Wigan Warriors

Rhinos finished second in Betfred Women’s Super League and face third-placed York Valkyrie in Friday’s semi-final at AMT Headingley (5.15pm). The winners will travel to Wigan Warriors, who qualified automatically as league leaders, for the Grand Final on Sunday, September 27 (5.30pm).

Though Rhinos go into the qualifier on the back of four successive defeats - to York, Wigan twice and St Helens last weekend - Forsell feels they have taken strides forward this term. Leeds finished fourth in 2025 and Forsell said: “At the beginning of the year people would have said it was going to be a tough season, with the players who’ve moved on.

“Our girls have got together and done a really good job. They are a tight group; there’s definitely areas we need to be better this weekend, but we’ve had a successful year and we’ve had some consistency.

“Not the last couple of weeks, but performances haven’t been too far off. We lost by six points to Wigan who were probably better than they were on Sunday [when they were beaten by York], so if you look at it through that lens, it sets up an exciting end to the season.”

Valkyrie’s stunning 26-12 win against Wigan ended the defending champions’ unbeaten record for this season and meant Valkyrie pipped Saints to a place in the semi-final. Forsell insisted: “That’s why this part of the season is so exciting, because why not?

“It only takes one game to cause a bit of an upset and then it can go either way. When you are winning week-in, week-out there can be some complacency and it seems that’s what some of it was - though some of that is only natural. Fair play to York; it is tough for St Helens, but you’ve got to put yourself in a position where you’re not relying on someone else.”

Saints seemed to have got the job done with their 24-22 victory at Leeds last Saturday. Rhinos scored five tries to four, but managed only one goal against Saints’ five and Forsell insisted: “Put aside the result, I was happy with parts of the performance.

“There are some areas we need to tidy up, but we scored more tries than St Helens. Because of where we scored, some of our kicks were a bit more difficult. We let Saints score in the wrong areas so their kicks were a lot easier.

“We weren’t at our best, we had far too many errors, but we can cut those out. We have got to make sure we are ready to go this weekend and I am comfortable we’ve got more than enough to make sure we get the job done.

“We have got to be on it for the full game and that’s our challenge this weekend. Both teams will be fired up and excited for the game and it’s just whoever pieces a performance together the best.”