Leeds Rhinos women ready to play their part in Warrington Wolves double-header
Four new faces will make their first appearance for Leeds Rhinos women in a pre-season game against Warrington Wolves at Headingley today, immediately following the men’s Super League fixture.
It is Rhinos women’s first game since their Grand Final defeat by St Helens last October and only warm-up ahead of a Betfred Challenge Cup tie against Huddersfield Giants a month today.
Off-season signings from Castleford Tigers Georgia Roche, Emma Lumley and Jasmine Earnshaw-Cudjoe will feature for Leeds, along with Sophia Williams, who has joined them from Illingworth.
Rhinos coach Lois Forsell has urged fans of both teams to stay on after the men’s game to watch the women in action. She said: “It’s what the women’s game needs, more exposure.
“Sometimes people won’t go to stand-alone fixtures, they have got busy lives, but the chance to see both teams in one place is a massive boost for the women’s game.”
Rhinos are keen to regain their status as the top women’s team after Saints completed the treble last season.
“Pre-season has been really good,” Forsell reported. “We’ve been on the field since early January and before that we had a real focus on strength and conditioning.
“We won’t be the finished article yet, but we have been working on the basic fundamentals and things we want to be better at.
“We’ve been looking at some of our defence, we want to be a team to be reckoned with defensively.
“We want to be better around the ruck, which is something that let us down last year.
“We’ll work more on good ball later, but at the moment we are focusing on core skills.”
Leeds Rhinos women (v Warrington): from Beevers, Nuttall, Johnson, Kerrigan, Williams, Roche, Gaines, Staveley, Earnshaw-Cudjoe, Lumley, Murray, Frain, Butcher. Subs Hulme, McCallion, Hornby, Lacey, Lockwood, Watson, Oldroyd.
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