Praise for Leeds Rhinos' 'special player' ahead of Super League and Wembley Challenge Cup double v St Helens

The 20-year-old was player of the match, scoring two tries and three goals, when Rhinos defeated Wigan Warriors 34-20 in last Sunday’s Betfred Women’s Challenge Cup semi-final. This is Enright’s second season as part of Rhinos’ senior squad and she has played in all eight games so far, touching down 13 times and landing 52 successful kicks.

Enright featured in last year’s Cup final defeat by St Helens - who Rhinos visit on Friday and face again at Wembley 15 days later - and coach Lois Forsell enthused: “The amount she has matured over the past six-nine-12 months is incredible. She is a young player, but a special player.”

Enright played for community clubs Drighlington and Dewsbury Moor and signed for Leeds aged 15. However, an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered in 2020 kept her off the field until last season and Forsell said: “People don’t realise the journey Ruby has been on this year.

“She had it quite tough when Covid hit, she had knee surgery and it has been quite a prolonged return. She managed to get in and do some recovery with the first team - while we had different rules during the Covid period - but she had to work really hard to get back, given the time the injury occurred and the lack of game time. It is credit to her, in terms of how hard she has worked, to get this far.”

Assessing Enright’s impact this season, Rhinos captain Hanna Butcher described her as “pivotal to us at the moment”. She said: “She has really come out of her shell from last year.

“I think game on game she is getting better and better and building her confidence. I am mega-proud of her; she’s always there at training, doing extras and doing kicking practice. She is great for the team.”

Butcher set up the second of Enright’s semi-final tries with a cross-field kick on the final tackle. She admitted: “It was completely off the cuff. I didn’t even know where I was aiming, I just thought ‘let’s give it a shot’, but Ruby was the first to react to it, so good on her.”