'The vibe is good': Top spot up for grabs as Leeds Rhinos Women prepare for York City Knights

With one round remaining, York head the table by two points from Leeds, with St Helens in third place on for and against.

Victory over York in Sunday’s 1pm kick-off would give Rhinos a chance of finishing the regular season as league leaders, depending on the result of Saints’ game at Wigan Warriors which kicks off an hour later.

Leeds haven’t played since a 30-22 defeat by Saints at Headingley three weeks ago and full-back Fran Goldthorp admitted Sunday’s game is effectively a cup final.

“We didn’t play as well as we wanted to against Saints,” she said.

“We came off the pitch very disappointed in our own performances, but with the time we’ve had we’ve been able to review that, have good training sessions and work on the things we know we need to work on.

“Hopefully that will benefit us come Sunday.”

Rhinos’ only other league loss this year was 24-10 at York in June.

Goldthorp insisted: “The vibe in the camp this week has been good.

“We feel confident we’ve got the ability to go out there and show them we can put points past them.

“We didn’t play as well as we could have done against them the first time.

“We had different circumstances with Covid and things like that and I definitely think this will be a tough game, but it should be a good one.”

Leeds have had some intense battles with York over the past two seasons and before that when many of the Knights squad were at Castleford Tigers.

“They’ve got some good players and a lot of depth,” Goldthorp warned.

“They’ve got good players in key areas and we need to shut them down, but these are the games you want to play in and everyone’s excited.

“It would mean a lot if we could finish top, we’ve put a lot into this season and it makes the sacrifices all worthwhile, but if not we will go out there and prove it in the play-offs.”