Wembley looms for Leeds Rhinos as Cardiff stand in way of Women's Challenge Cup semi-final

The tie is the second part of a double-header which begins with Rhinos’ men’s reserves taking on London Broncos and Australian signing Georgia Elliston is relishing her first appearance at the famous stadium. “It is so exciting,” the front-rower said.

“On one of my first days here I got to look around the stadium and it was incredible. The thought of being able to walk from those changing rooms onto the pitch in front of, hopefully, a big crowd is incredible.”

Cardiff lost 76-6 at treble-winners Wigan Warriors in their opening Betfred Challenge Cup group game, but qualified for the quarter-finals with a 24-12 win against Featherstone Rovers. Leeds will be hot favourites to reach the last four after hammering Leigh Leopards 82-0 and London Broncos 72-0 in the pool stage.

Elliston said: “Our eyes are definitely on Wembley; we need to get this weekend done, but we have high hopes for the competition. Everyone speaks about how much it really matters and they are still devastated about not making it last year. It is a massive focus at this stage.”

Elliston, 26, switched from playing soccer in Australia to rugby league four years ago. She was named Rookie of the Year for the Tweed Seagulls in their 2023 Queensland Premiership season and played for the Queensland Sapphires in the National Championship the following year.

She made her debut against London last week and reflected: “It was great, the environment was great and it was really good to be out on the field with the girls after training with them for the last month and to put everything together. The girls here have really impressed me; I didn’t know what to expect going into it, but the individual ability of the girls is really impressive and it all comes together very nicely as a team. We complement each other very well.”

New Zealand international Georgia Hale, who won the Golden Boot as the world’s best female player in 2023 and had a brief spell with Leeds earlier that year, played a big part in Elliston joining Rhinos. Elliston said: “She lives on the Gold Coast for three-quarters of the year so I knew her from there. When I was asking where to go she said Leeds was the club to be at.

“She loved it at Leeds and said it’s a professional setting., Everything she said has been exactly what I’ve experienced. She presented my jersey [last week], which was lovely. She is somebody I have always looked up to as a role model. On the field and off the field she is a top person so it was really cool to receive that jersey from her.”

Off-season signings Nicole Kennedy and Lois Naidole could make their Rhinos debut on Saturday. Kennedy joined the club on dual-registration from London Broncos while former Huddersfield Giants player Naidole has been ruled out of Leeds’ first two games of the year through injury.

Evie Cousins misses out after being injured against London. She joins Caitlin Beevers, Keara Bennett, Lacey Owen and Sophie Nuttall on the casualty list.

Rhinos women (v Cardiff): from Enright, Stead, Whitehead, Howard, Walker, Donnelly, Glynn, Murray, Brown, Bruce, Boyd, Short, Bryer, Field, Sharp, Blakey, Naidole, Wambalu, Hirst, Elliston, Kennedy.

Kick-off: Saturday, 3.15pm.