Women’s RL: Tackling Castleford Tigers will be a tough test for Leeds Rhinos

Rhinos have a 100 per cent record after two games, having beaten Wakefield Trinity and Featherstone Rovers, but Tigers began their season with victory at champions Wigan Warriors and followed that with an 80-0 rout of York City Knights. Tigers have strengthened since the end of last season and Rhinos coach Adam Cuthbertson reckons they deserve to be among the title favourites.

“They have got a good team,” he noted. “They are a team who’ve been together for a number of years now, with the addition of the likes of Rhiannion Marshall from us. She has really strengthened their forward pack, which is not what they were lacking last year – they had a good pack as well as a decent backline. That makes them an even tougher team to come up against.”

Rhinos won 24-16 at LD Nutrition Stadium, Post Office Road, last time out, but Cuthbertson is demanding a better performance this weekend. He admitted: “It wasn’t overly convincing against Featherstone. We had a couple of girls out to start with, which didn’t help and we were down to no bench by half-time. Some of the girls who usually only have short stints had to play big minutes. We did show a bit of grit in the last 20 minutes and hung in there, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the performance.

“The girls found out about that the hard way this week, but I am sure it is a learning curve for us going forward. We can’t take any game for granted and we have to understand the best-prepared team on the day and the team which goes in with the right attitude and intent will prevail.”

England front-rower Danika Priim is close to making her comeback from an anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered last year, but Cuthbertson insisted she won’t play until fully ready. He said: “I don’t want to play anyone injured, that’s not healthy for their life away from rugby – they are not getting paid so it’s one I have got to manage well. It is not a do-or-die game and I’d rather see Danika healthy for the remainder of the season when she gets in than force her back based on the fact we’ve a few numbers out and a tough game coming up.”