Leeds Rhinos teenager tipped for big future

Casey, 18, was a Championship Grand Final winner with Oulton Raidettes last season and made her Rhinos debut in Betfred Women’s Super League round one, after coming through Leeds’ academy system.

Rhinos are going through a transitional stage following long-serving captain/half-back Courtney Winfield-Hill’s retirement and the departure of stand-off Georgia Roche to Australia’s NL Women’s competition.

The reigning champions have lost two of their opening three Super League games, but Casey was among the try scorers in last Friday’s defeat by St Helens and Forsell reckons she is “progressing week on week”.

Forsell said. “For a young player it is a big step, but we know she has got a lot to give and a lot to develop.

“She went well [against Saints] and we’ll just make sure she is getting better game on game. It is a steep learning curve for her and we’ll make sure we keep giving her as much support as we can.”

Leeds have lost to two of their main rivals, York Valkyrie and Saints, already this year, and Forsell admitted it has been a tough start to the league campaign.

“We have got a lot of new faces and we’ve got to make sure we learn from game to game and get some response out of it,” she said.

“I do think we are a much better side than the way we performed [last week]. I think we’ve just got to start taking on what we are asked to do and get it right.

“That’s for us to work out as a group. We didn’t get it right [against Saints], but certainly if we’d done the things we’d focussed on we’d have come out of it a bit better.”

Reflecting on that 38-18 result, Forsell admitted Rhinos’ defence let them down. She noted: “We were in the game for the parts where we turned up and did what we asked the girls to do as a group, but we switched off in defence at key times.

“When you do that it is really tough, because you’re letting in too many points and not getting back into the arm wrestle.

“There were definitely pleasing points in how we can attack and get points on the board, but defensively it was disappointing.”

Rhinos had won their previous three games, against Huddersfield in the league and Bradford Bulls and Giants in Super League, without conceding a point, but the coach refused to blame the easy nature of those matches.

“It’s the same for both teams,” she stated. “I think we just didn’t turn up enough. It’s certainly not an excuse, it doesn’t help - the format - but it’s not an excuse for us.”