Who wins: A team of Leeds Rhinos past players or Leeds Rhinos 2025?
There's a pretty good 13 of former Leeds Rhinos players in Super League!
Of all the clubs that produce players currently plying their trade in the professional game, few are quite as prolific as Leeds Rhinos.
The Rhinos have produced some of the very best talent to have appeared in Super League over the last 30 years. Some of those have gone on to achieve great things at AMT Headingley – others have succeeded away from the club.
Which got us thinking: in 2025, how would a line-up of past Leeds Rhinos players still active in the game look: and could it give the current Rhinos crop a run for its money?
There’s no doubting Leeds have recruited well this season, at least on the early signs shown by the likes of Jake Connor and Keenan Palasia.
But in a couple of positions at least, we reckon there’s some ex-Leeds players who would definitely improve what the Rhinos have in their stock at present!
It would have been a fairly ludicrous shout as recently as a month or so ago, but on recent form, one of those would be scrum-half. Leeds have had uncertainty and a lack of continuity there for some time; the same is not true at Hull FC, where Aidan Sezer has been thriving.
We’d argue Leeds have just as good a former hooker as they do a current one, too – given how Kruise Leeming is integral to the all-conquering Super League champions, Wigan. And staying with the Warriors, Sam Walters‘ form is starting to come together with regular minutes under Matt Peet: he’s another who’d surely push for a place in this Rhinos side.
The pack is where you find a lot of potential improvements. There’s no doubting James Bentley and James McDonnell have improved under Brad Arthur: but Rhyse Martin, although currently injured, was a player Leeds didn’t want to lose and with good reason.
England internationals Robbie Mulhern, Elliot Minchella and James Harrison were all Leeds players once upon a team, but now spearhead packs for teams who have enjoyed much better fortunes than the Rhinos have in recent years.
But in the backline, there are fewer cast-iron improvements over the class of 2025, we’d wager.
A centre pairing of Salford duo Nene Macdonald and Kallum Watkins (we know, Watkins is a second rower these days) would still go pretty decent, though Ash Handley and Harry Newman have also looked good in patches under Arthur. Handley could become one of the standout centres in Super League with Arthur as coach.
On the wing, there’s two veteran picks in Matty Russell – he of that legendary loan spell at Leeds last year – and Tom Briscoe: of course, up until this year, Ryan Hall would have fallen in the bracket of ex-Rhinos players.
But either way, we think it makes a pretty decent 13 – and there’s surely a few players in there Rhinos fans would love to see back in blue and amber. Who’d win in a game between the two sides? Let us know below.
Leeds Rhinos 1-13 (past/present)
1. Jack Broadbent/Jake Connor
2. Matty Russell/Riley Lumb
3. Nene Macdonald/Harry Newman
4. Kallum Watkins/Ash Handley
5. Tom Briscoe /Ryan Hall
6. Tui Lolohea/Brodie Croft
7. Aidan Sezer/Matt Frawley
8. Robbie Mulhern/Mikolaj Oledzki
9. Kruise Leeming/Andy Ackers
10. James Harrison/Keenan Palasia
11. Sam Walters/James Bentley
12. Rhyse Martin/James McDonnell
13. Elliot Minchella/Cameron Smith
WEDNESDAY’S READS ON LRL
👉🏻 Every club’s standout player after opening month as Man of Steel candidates emerge
👉🏻 Wigan Warriors icon says club ‘bigger than 80s heyday’ after Las Vegas trip
👉🏻 Will Super League Grand Final be impacted by new Old Trafford plans?
