{"id":291939,"date":"2025-11-30T19:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/291939\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T19:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T19:56:12","slug":"former-leeds-rhinos-man-james-bentley-ready-for-fresh-start-after-warrington-wolves-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/291939\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Leeds Rhinos man James Bentley ready for “fresh start” after Warrington Wolves switch"},"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

Following his shock departure from Leeds Rhinos, forward James Bentley<\/a> is hoping that his next career move will be the start of a new chapter in his life, both personally and professionally.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old back-rower left Headingley in October<\/a>, with the club releasing a brief statement explaining the decision.<\/p>\n

Part of the statement read: \u201c\u2026due to a personal matter, both parties have agreed a release from the remainder of his contract to allow Bentley to look at other options for 2026 and beyond in his best interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeeds Rhinos as a club will continue to offer James support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, the Ireland international has joined Warrington Wolves, linking up with Sam Burgess\u2019 side on a one-year deal.<\/a><\/p>\n

At the Wolves, he his hoping that he an get back to playing his best rugby, something he has admitted has been missing over the past few years.<\/p>\n

Sitting down to have a look back at his career so far<\/a>, Bentley has discussed the key moments in his career that led him to where he is today.<\/p>\n

Starting out at Bradford Bulls, he made his Odsal debut in 2016, but it was the following year that he really made his mark. He won the Championship Young Player of the Year in 2017, something that he looks back on fondly.<\/p>\n

After being shown a photo of him winning the award, Bentley said: \u201cLots of good memories looking back at that photo, there. [It was] my breakthrough season really. We hit a bit of turmoil in pre-season with liquidation and everything and the administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I sort of took it in my stride, it give me an opportunity, and the rest was history, really. I had a breakthrough year, played lots of rugby, scored lots of tries and that set me up for my move to St Helens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining the Red Vee from 2018 and staying there until 2021, he made 49 appearances for the Saints, and by the end of his time there was one of the best back rowers in the competition.<\/p>\n

There, he also won his first piece of silverware, after featuring in the Grand Final victory in 2020, as Jack Welsby\u2019s try at the MKM Stadium snatched the victory for the side.<\/p>\n

Commenting on his time at the club, he said: \u201cWe went to Saints, I made my debut towards the end of the year but obviously I had to then re-craft my trade and earn them stripes again at a new club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at that photo [of him holding the Grand Final trophy] and there\u2019s a lot of happy memories there. There\u2019s no better feeling than winning a comp. I\u2019m chasing another one, that\u2019s always going to be the goal and hopefully we do it here at Warrington.<\/p>\n

James Bentley discusses Leeds Rhinos exit and Warrington Wolves goals<\/p>\n

In 2022, he joined boyhood club Leeds, and reached the Grand Final in his maiden season.<\/p>\n

He described his move to the Blue and Amber as \u201ca really proud moment\u201d, after once being a fan growing up watching from the famous South Stand.<\/p>\n

His time at the Rhinos didn\u2019t go as well as he would have liked, with the defeat at Old Trafford a particular low point.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it just didn\u2019t pan out how I thought it would.\u00a0 I had a lot of good times there, we got to that Grand Final in my first year, but unfortunately didn\u2019t do the job on Saints. My old team beat me which was a tough pill to swallow, but that\u2019s sport.<\/p>\n

Now, he will change the amber for primrose, as he represents the Wolves in 2026. The squad numbers suggest that he won\u2019t be a starting player, with Adam Holroyd and Sam Stone taking the 11 and 12 jerseys at the club.<\/p>\n

However, that will only be increased motivation for Bentley, who is preparing for one of the biggest seasons of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to it,\u201d he said. I think I needed a fresh start, coming somewhere new and giving myself a new lease of life. Meeting with Sam [Burgess] was a big driver in me coming here, and obviously how big the club is here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they\u2019re chasing silverware, they\u2019ve not had a Grand Final here before, so for me to come to a club that hasn\u2019t ever achieved that and be able to be a part of history is something that drives me and something that really excites me.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I just want to get back to playing my best rugby. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve probably hit that for the past few years and just enjoying my rugby again and getting the best out of me and obviously at the end of that comes silverware. I think, when you\u2019re winning, you\u2019re always happy.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show 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":"Following his shock departure from Leeds Rhinos, forward James Bentley is hoping that his next career move will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-291939","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\/291939","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=291939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}