'We're robust enough to handle it' - Nomadic Leeds Rhinos to play home game in arena they've never set foot in

Rhinos host Cardiff Dragons at the Canon Medical Arena in Sheffield, one of five different venues they will use across Yorkshire during the five-month season.

It is nothing new for the Rhinos, who for the entirety of their four-year lifespan have led a peripatetic existence due to not having a venue of their own in Leeds.

The University of Huddersfield, Hull’s Allam Sports Centre and the English Institute of Sport half a mile from the Canon Medical Centre will all be used, with just the one marquee game in Leeds at the first direct Arena in April.

This is their first game at a building built primarily for the Sheffield Sharks basketball team, and despite seeing it for the first time today, Leota says the reality is something they have got used to.

“Even though we don’t have a home base we do love getting around Yorkshire, different people, different venues and different environments create different crowds so for us I think it is nice to be at home with the fans cheering for us and not against us,” said the director of netball.

“It doesn’t make it harder. We have been lucky enough and robust enough to have the players who know that wherever we go we have to make it our own fortress, we have to stay connected as a team. Hopefully that gives the girls the energy they need.

“We’ve learned to be robust in that way, that while we’re not lucky enough to have our own home venue and know what that feels like, it means that wherever we go we’ve got to take that atmosphere with us and make it our own.”