Leeds Rhinos top-10 moments - No 7 start of the Golden Generation

Rhinos have enjoyed some memorable evenings over the 25 seasons of Super League, but the 24-22 home loss to Sheffield Eagles on August 22, 1997 wasn’t among them.

Rhinos managed to throw away a 22-14 lead in the final three minutes of a costly setback which began a slump down the table from second to fifth.

However, the significance of that long-forgotten defeat was massive.

Almost unnoticed at the time, it was the debut - off the bench - of a highly-rated teenager Kevin Sinfield and, therefore, the birth of Leeds’ golden generation.

Sinfield went on to make 521 appearances for Rhinos, a total beaten by only two players in the club’s history.

By the time he retired from rugby league, at the end of the 2015 season, he had set club records for most career goals and points, captained Leeds to seven Super League triumphs and was third on the sport’s all-time lists for both goals and points.

Of the 10 academy products who featured in Leeds’ 2004 Grand Final win, Sinfield was the first to make his senior debut, two seasons before Danny Ward, Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Chev Walker.

In total, 22 home-grown players featured in Rhinos’ eight Old Trafford victories from 2004 to 2017, collectively becoming known as the club’s Golden Generation.

Sinfield was tipped as a future star from the moment he joined Leeds as a 13-year-old on August 1, 1994.

He had already played at Wembley, for Oldham Schools in a Challenge Cup final curtain-raiser two years earlier and featured for Leeds when they won the academy title in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

Other significant debuts as the Golden Generation began to form were Jones-Buchanan’s against Wakefield Trinity in May, 1999; Rob Burrow’s at home to Hull on April 6, 2001 - in Dean Lance’s final game as coach - and Danny McGuire’s first senior appearance exactly three months later, against Salford.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. These are challenging times but the team at the Yorkshire Evening Post need your support more than ever in the weeks ahead.

While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you. In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you - wherever possible and providing it is safe for you to do so - to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Inevitably falling advertising revenues will start to have an impact on local newspapers and the way we continue to work during this period of uncertainty. So the support of our readers has never been more important as we try to make sure that we keep you connected with the city you live in during this time. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. We need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Our team of trusted reporters are working incredibly hard behind the scenes- from kitchen tables and spare bedrooms - to look at how we can do this and your continued support to the YEP will help to protect its viability in the days and weeks ahead.

For more details on our subscription offers please visit www.localsubsplus.co.uk/YEP, email [email protected] or call us on 0330 4033004

Thank you

Laura Collins

Editor

READ MORE:

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/opinion/were-therewithyou-now-your-yep-needs-your-support-too-laura-collins-yep-editor-2521777