Leeds Rhinos Netball lose marquee signing Elmere van der Berg to injury

Rhinos have lost their first three games of the Vitality Superleague season while Nicola Smith and Elmere van der Berg remain in their native South Africa rehabilitating from injuries.

And on Friday they learned van der Berg will no longer be joining the Netball Super League team for the 2023 season after it was confirmed her recent injury would rule the goal-shooter out for the majority of the campaign.

Van der Berg was scheduled to join the Rhinos in January following international duties but this date was pushed back after the 21-year-old picked up an injury. Following the setback, the club and player have now agreed to terminate the playing contract to give Van der Berg time to recover and to allow the Rhinos to be able to bring a replacement player into the squad.

The club have also been in contact with Netball South Africa regarding the fitness of Nicola Smith who signed for Leeds for this season. The defender is still rehabilitating from an injury and is not expected to be able to join the Rhinos in the foreseeable future.

Commenting on the announcement, Rhinos Franchise Director Dan Busfield said: “We are obviously disappointed that we won’t see Elmeré play for the Rhinos this year. Given the delay to her arrival and the start of our season, both ourselves and Elmeré felt it was right to end her contract for this year and give her the time she needs to rehabilitate her injury with Netball South Africa and we wish her the best with her recovery.”

Rhinos have suffered defeats to London Pulse, Saracens Mavericks and Surrey Storm in their first home game of the campaign, but Leota sees only positives about the challenge that lies ahead.

"The squad is in a good mood,” said director of netball Leota. We surprised ourselves against Pulse. It’s hard going into the opening round without your two imports, so just to see what the 10 girls had and just to crack on was huge. Without our two imports at either end of the court it shows the difference of having those and how quickly teams are scoring with having a tall target shooter.

“We’re still gelling, we’ve still got lots to improve on. Sirens is definitely a game we can take. Player for player, we balance each other out pretty evenly.”