Leeds Rhinos are weighing up an audacious move to sign Leigh Leopards forward Ethan O\u2019Neill for the 2026 season, Love Rugby League has learned.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill has made a huge impression during his first season in England with the Leopards, and played a pivotal role in helping them reach the Super League play-offs.<\/p>\n
He is entering the final year of the two-year deal he signed at the start of last season but a surprise move away from the Leigh Sports Village could be on the cards with immediate effect, as the Rhinos ponder a sensational move to sign the forward.<\/p>\n
They are on the hunt for a back-rower after James Bentley departed the club and joined Warrington Wolves, and their attention has turned to O\u2019Neill as a result, with Leeds prepared to offer a long-term deal to sign him.<\/p>\n
Crucially, O\u2019Neill is exempt from the overseas quota too, making any deal more feasible and appealing for the Rhinos.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill was born in Australia but spent time in the UK as a youngster when his father, Julian, was playing for the likes of Wakefield Trinity and Wigan Warriors.<\/p>\n
That helped him secure a visa to come to Super League last year and not count on any overseas quota \u2013 something Leeds will now be able to take advantage of.<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen whether a deal can be completed, but with the Leopards signing Jacob Alick-Wiencke and having the likes of Frankie Halton and Owen Trout capable of playing in the back row, they may well be open to letting O\u2019Neill leave.<\/p>\n
And that has alerted Leeds, who are now considering whether to sign him for 2026 and beyond and adding him to Brad Arthur\u2019s squad as the Rhinos look to push on after a season of real improvement under the Australian in Super League in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos are weighing up an audacious move to sign Leigh Leopards forward Ethan O\u2019Neill for the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-241491","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\/241491","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=241491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}