Leeds Rhinos joined by two huge Championship rivals in training

Leeds Rhinos’ pre-season is well underway.

Though the club are still waiting on some Rugby League World Cup stars to return, the majority of the squad is back in the mix and their 2023 squad numbers were confirmed yesterday following the announcement of the arrival of Nene MacDonald from Leigh Leopards going into the new season.

Last weekend they had over 40 players in training as the academy sides joined the first team in pre-season training and today, as Rohan Smith tries to prepare the club to go one better in 2023 after losing the Grand Final in 2022, they were joined by two Championship rivals in the shape of Bradford rivals the Bulls and Keighley Cougars.

The two have taken players from each other going into 2023 as well as making huge Super League signings.

Former Hull FC and Hull KR man Ben Crooks for instance has joined the Cougars whilst Bradford have signed Leeds duo Jack Walker and Bodene Thompson as well as Huddersfield Giants veteran Michael Lawrence.

Bradford are Smith’s former club where he tried to sign Derrell Olpherts whom he has just brought to Leeds from Castleford Tigers.

It will be interesting to see if these sessions will help the Bulls and Cougars prepare for next year as well as helping Smith’s side.

He recently spoke about his hopes of taking the Rhinos one better as well as shock position switch for one man which you can read about here.