Kick off 3.00pm Sunday 12th Feb Headingley


Here we go!!


Hull have already got their season off to a flyer and no doubt by the time we kick off, Wigan and Saints will have too.
It should be close to a reduced capacity Full House of 16,600 to see Jamie Peacock pull on the Leeds shirt competitively for the first time, together with other new boys Shane Millard and Scott Donald, not surprisingly Nathan McAvoy does not make the 20 - still not worked that one out, (The signing I mean!)

We should be at full strength with the exception of other new boy Mark O’Neill with the starting 13 picking themselves:
Mathers, Donald, Walker, Senior, Smith, McGuire, Burrow, Bailey, Diskin, Peacock, Lauitiiti, Ellis, Sinfield,

with Millard, Poching, Jones-Buchanan, Scruton probably making up the 17.
Huddersfield’s half back pairing of Thorman and Paul should provide the biggest danger but if McGuire is back to his best as all reports suggest I expect the Rhinos to run out 12 point plus winners.

Get there early to support the Rhinos senior academy kick off their season against their Huddersfield counterparts kick off 12.45pm.


We are Leeds!!!

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After 3, maybe 4 months stuck talking to the wife, Super League is back just in the nick of time before you have to start discussing the new series of footballer’s wives.


Unfortunately after a series of mediocre pre-season displays and an unbalanced squad, we will not be winning it unless we bring in a further winger.
The Bulls won't be winning it either as their recruitment has been as bad as ours, so that leaves The Saints. I'm not happy about it but I think they will have it won by round 23 and even worse I think that Hull will finish above us in second place.


Danny McGuire has to have a Bigseason offensively but having said that I don't think The Rhinos will struggle in that department, I think we look weaker in defence this year and for that reason I think we will finish in third spot just in front of the Bulls and then Wigan with Warrington making up top six.


Danny Ward might make an impact at Cas but I still see them finishing bottom just behind Wakefield.

These first 3 weeks will give us a good idea of what to expect from the Rhinos, I hope my pessimism proves misplaced and we are still going come 6.30pm on the 14th October.


Roll on Sunday!!

The unexpected sacking of Danny Ward gives Leeds an unexpected opportunity to bolster their woefully short back line with the quality winger I think we need if we are to win anything at all this season or indeed just be competitive.
Danny Ward could get us out of a real problem this season and help balance up what I believe is a currently unbalanced squad and depending on what sort of salary he was picking up we could bring in 2 new faces if we currently have just the 18 20/20 players as many pundits reckon.

The problem is who is going to let anybody that is any good go at this stage unless somebody wants to do a “swap” with Ward.
We have to do everything we can to bring in a quality winger such as the “Volcano” otherwise I fear a third or possibly fourth place finish this year.

Richie Mathers is back in the team for the friendly with York on Sunday as he continues his comeback from the surgery he underwent on his wrist at the end of last season.


At 22 years old Mathers is one of the most experienced players in the squad where he is joined by new recruits Shane Millard and Nathan McAvoy(No Comment).


Of interest will be how some of the recently promoted juniors fare,particularly the backs, bearing in mind that we are well short of cover players with experience in that area they are likely to be straight into the first team should we suffer an injury.


Below is the Rhonos complete squad for the upcoming 2006 season.


1 Richard Mathers
2 Scott Donald

3 Chev Walker
4 Keith Senior

5 Lee Smith
6 Danny McGuire

7 Rob Burrow
8 Ryan Bailey

9 Matt Diskin
10 Jamie Peacock

11 Ali Lauitiiti
12 Gareth Ellis

13 Kevin Sinfield (C)
14 Shane Millard

15 Danny Ward
16 Willie Poching

17 Mark O’Neill
18 Jamie Jones-Buchanan

19 Chris Feather
20 Nick Scruton

21 Carl Ablett
22 Ian Kirke

23 Peter Fox
24 Nathan McAvoy

25 Jason Golden
26 Danny Williams

27 Ashley Gibson