Leeds Rhinos star follows in ex-Castleford Tigers dad's England foosteps, admits point to prove v St Helens

Saturday’s visitors St Helens have inflicted the only blemishes on Rhinos’ otherwise perfect season, winning 12-6 on their own ground in Betfred Women’s Super League six weeks ago and 22-0 in last month’s Challenge Cup final at Wembley. Those defeats stung, but forward Bella Sykes insisted Leeds are ready to make it third time lucky.

“The girls are really looking forward to the game and the challenge,” she said. “We’ve gone away from the defeat at Wembley, looked at ourselves and worked on a few things to make us better. A lot of those are really easy fixes, we’ve had a couple of weeks to put them into practice and we’re really hoping to have a good performance.”

Rhinos top the Super League table ahead of Wigan Warriors on for and against with Saints and York Valkyrie, who both have a game in hand, two points back. Leeds haven’t finished as league leaders since their inaugural season six years ago, but victory on Saturday would be a step towards at least a home semi-final and Sykes stressed: “It’s getting to a really important point in the season for us now.

“We need to be winning these bigger games and winning them confidently. Hopefully our experiences will really drive that going forward and it’ll be a big statement if we go out and win this weekend, which we are all confident we can do.”

The women’s game (12.30pm) kicks off a triple-header with Leeds’ men in action against London Broncos at 3pm and the academy facing Castleford Tigers at 5.30pm. “It’s always good to play at Headingley, especially before the men,” Sykes said. Hopefully there should be a bit of a crowd there and it’ll be good to put on a good performance for them and show the fans what we are about.”

Sykes, 19, joined Rhinos last season from Huddersfield Giants and is the daughter of Nathan Sykes who made 291 appearances for Castleford Tigers from 1991-2004. Rated among the brightest prospects in the women’s game, she was one of six Rhinos players on Test duty last week.

England’s 17 included a similar number from Saints and Sykes admitted that led to some interesting banter before and after the 42-0 win over France in Toulouse. She said: “There were a few comments, a few jokes put about the camp. It was just friendly fire, we are all looking forward to it. The Saints girls know we want it as much as they do and that’s what we like. We want to play in these competitive games against the best players.”

Sykes described her first cap - 25 years after her dad made his England debut away to France - as “super-special” and a “whirlwind experience”. She recalled: “It all went really quickly. I didn’t initially expect the call-up, it happened on the back of the Origin game and when I got the call I was in shock, but really happy.

“It’s what, individually, I’ve been working towards. I didn’t think it would be my year this year, being a younger player who has just come into Leeds. It was amazing and I loved every minute of it.

“It is really nice to know someone else has noticed your efforts. Players in the middle of the field often get overlooked, but I have been working my hardest so I get picked week on week for Leeds and anything else that comes on the back of that is a positive. It’s nice to be recognised for hard work, more than anything and I am really eager now to keep working harder.”