It’s Rivals Round and thus Sky Sports pundit Jon Wells has revealed his favourite rugby league rivalry and sadly it is a game we no longer see in Super League.
It is the rivalry between Leeds and Bradford specifically in the late 90s.
He said:
“Mine is the real rivalry between the Leeds Rhinos and the Bradford Bulls. What made this special was watching the real brilliance on offer especially for the Paul brothers who only played with each other for a short period and this was part of it in the late 90s. Special players and I got to play with one at Harlequins.
“Henry Paul was a gentleman and his brother Robbie was one of the best to ever pull on a shirt.”
A man who played in many Leeds-Bradford derbies, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, echoed those sentiments and shared a story about another rivalry with the Castleford Tigers:
“I certainly do miss those Leeds Bradford games. I picked out Richard Fioso, a player who back in 2006 when I was 25 I was carrying the ball and smashed by him and spun round.
“I was embarrassed and ran straight back at him and got wacked again and this time he held me down for a bit so I tried head butting him instead and he just absolutely smashed me to bits he turned my head into a punching bag and I was sin binned.
“That started a rivalry with him wherever he went and it ended about 18-0 to him so like Monty Python’s Black Knight, I say let’s just call it a draw.”
