Leeds Rhinos’ record win at Castleford Tigers was no surprise to Liam Sutcliffe

Former Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers forward Craig Huby recently opened a cafe in Castleford and Ashton Golding, the Huddersfield Giants’ ex-Leeds Rhinos full-back, launched a coffee shop in Horsforth last summer.

Now Leeds Rhinos’ Liam Sutcliffe has gone into business with his former team-mate Dom Crosby, who was forced to retire at the end of 2019 because of injury.

The pair’s venture - Oscada in Leeds’ Roundhay Road - is still a work in progress, after opening during the latest lockdown, but Sutcliffe said they have plans to expand.

“It’s a coffee shop in the main and, at the minute, we are doing cakes and pastries and things,” he reported.

“We are still getting the inside kitted out and then we’ll be moving on to more food.”

Sutcliffe revealed: “Dom is the main person; he sorted everything out.

“For me, it is an investment; when Dom floated the idea to me, I thought it would be a good thing to put some money into.

“It’s not something I will do when I retire, but it’s good to have something else there.”

The cakes will have tasted sweeter this week following Rhinos’ 60-6 win over Castleford last Friday - a record home defeat for the Tigers.

Leeds’ players were given a few days off after that and Sutcliffe said: “Everyone’s come in in a pretty good mood; we are all pretty happy.”

Rhinos had struggled to score points before their trip to the Jungle, managing only 90 in their previous seven league games. But Sutcliffe insisted nobody in the squad was surprised when they finally managed to get their attack firing.

“How we look in training, especially with the ball, we knew at some point it would come together,” he said.

“It was nice to see a bit of flow to our game; everything looked pretty smooth.

“It was stuff we have worked on and it was good to see it come together.”

Rhinos are back in action a week today when they take on champions St Helens at Emerald Headingley.

“It can be seen as a good thing if you’ve got a few niggles,” Sutcliffe said of having no game this weekend.

“I am pretty sure if you’d asked everyone if we’d like to play again this week, we’d rather have played.

“After a game like that [against Castleford] it would have been good to get some momentum, but it can’t be helped.

“We will use this week as a bit of a recovery week, put some things right and, hopefully, come the Saints game we will be ready to go.”

Tigers were missing a host of key players and had an eye on this weekend’s Cup semi-final, but Saints will provide a sterner test.

Sutcliffe said: “Saints set the bar at the moment. They have been a great team for the last few years and we know how tough it will be, but we’re looking forward to it.”

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