{"id":230825,"date":"2025-10-28T21:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/230825\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T21:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:29:11","slug":"leeds-rhinos-confirm-pre-season-opener-with-super-league-opponents-locked-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/230825\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos confirm pre-season opener with Super League opponents locked in"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leeds Rhinos have confirmed their pre-season opener with Super League opponents locked in for their first game since their dramatic play-off loss to St Helens.<\/p>\n

The Rhinos season came to a devastating end when they lost to Saints in the dying seconds of their play-off eliminator at Headingley with the now iconic \u2018Left to Wright\u2019 try breaking Leeds\u2019 hearts.<\/p>\n

It was a game that was also marred in controversy with the RFL apologising to the Rhinos<\/a> regarding the decision to award Jon Bennison\u2019s try. On-field referee Jack Smith didn\u2019t award the try but video referee Chris Kendall overturned that decision, something the RFL confirmed should not have happened.<\/p>\n

Losing a game on such a note is tough to take but ending a season in that way, knowing it\u2019s months before you play again is brutal. Luckily for Leeds, they\u2019re set to play before most other Super League sides as the Rhinos first pre-season game has been confirmed and it comes in 2025.<\/p>\n

Leeds Rhinos to take on Wakefield Trinity as tradition continues<\/p>\n

Once again, Leeds will host Wakefield Trinity in the Festive Challenge with the teams meeting at Headingley on Boxing Day, as has become tradition.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a game that has been played every year since 2004, barring 2020, with Headingley the venue on all but one occasion. The Rhinos have won the last two editions and boast a record of 13 wins from the 19 games.<\/p>\n

Boxing Day 2025 will mark the 20th match-up with Leeds confirming the fixture\u2019s return with kick-off slated for 11.30 am on Friday 26th December.<\/p>\n

Whilst it will be the first pre-season game that Leeds play, it\u2019s not the first to have been announced with the Rhinos previously confirming that club captain Cameron Smith will have his testimonial match against Bradford Bulls<\/a> in the new year.<\/p>\n

That game will be played a month after Leeds\u2019 clash with Trinity as Bradford Bulls travel to Headingley on Saturday 24th January to celebrate 10 years of Smith as a Rhino, with the loose forward granted a testimonial year by the RFL.<\/p>\n

Serious About Rugby League has launched a brand new podcast which can be watched in full on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos have confirmed their pre-season opener with Super League opponents locked in for their first game since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-230825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}