{"id":557795,"date":"2026-04-30T00:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/557795\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T00:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:11:11","slug":"good-things-on-horizon-for-rugby-league-says-leeds-rhinos-chief-jamie-jones-buchanan-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/557795\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Good things on horizon for rugby league\u2019 says Leeds Rhinos chief Jamie Jones-Buchanan \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"

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JAMIE JONES-BUCHANAN has described his first few months as Leeds Rhinos\u2019 chief executive as \u201camazing\u201d \u2013 and insisted there\u2019s good times on the horizon for the whole sport.<\/p>\n

The charismatic former England second-rower, who played more than 400 games for his hometown Leeds as part of their famed Golden Generation, took over from long-serving Gary Hetherington in November.<\/p>\n

The role is a major departure from his decorated playing days but he is loving the change in career path.<\/p>\n

Jones-Buchanan, 44, said: \u201cIt\u2019s immersive. I\u2019ve been here 29 years, so of all the touch points I\u2019ve been fortunate to have, I\u2019ve now seen them through a more vibrant lens.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there have been certain special individuals that have transitioned in the likes of Gary Hetherington (going to London Broncos) and (head of customer experience) Sian Jones going to Hull FC, and one or two others around the place who were really influential.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you imagine them being big trees in the garden, that canopy moving on has allowed the light to find others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are others here who are thriving, who are getting into that age of transition as well, that midlife period, who have just shone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing (working at AMT Headingley).<\/p>\n

\u201cGary did two things exceptionally well. In terms of history and heritage, he helped us all understand the responsibility that we\u2019ve got carrying the badge of the Rhinos and Leeds Rugby League Club, or St Johns as it was known.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also he put in place an amazing group of leaders within the club. It\u2019s pretty autonomous.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s been great to work with a fantastic team in a different context.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highlight of his tenure so far has been the thrashing of champions Hull KR on an historic night in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Jones-Buchanan, who won seven Grand Finals with Leeds, admitted: \u201cIt\u2019s somewhere I\u2019d never naturally gravitate to, and maybe we\u2019ll never go back there again.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was without doubt the best event and excursion I\u2019ve ever had. It brought the staff, the team, the players and the club\u2019s partners together. It was just immense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it taught me was the three points that we\u2019ve had now in the short space of time \u2013 in regard to the (Ashes) internationals, the domestic World Club Challenge and then sports tourism \u2013\u00a0 for Rugby League, it works.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is context. The challenge is context. The way we need to tackle a problem is to shift the context, not to mess about with the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game\u2019s fine. The game absolutely works. It\u2019s just about being optimistic, shining a light on what works really well and the game coming together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s you, that\u2019s me, that\u2019s the community game, that\u2019s the other clubs, the owners, the CEOs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get together and shift the context, there are good things on the horizon for Rugby League.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones-Buchanan ran the London Marathon on Sunday to raise money for vital services provided by Community Integrated Care, who deliver more than eight million hours of specialist care across the nation and is a key partner of Rugby League.<\/p>\n

Leeds Rhinos v Wakefield Trinity preview and 21-man squads<\/a>Super League refereeing appointments for round ten confirmed<\/a>Brad Arthur reveals how Leeds Rhinos have escaped Super League injury crisis<\/a>Hull FC keen to retain Leeds Rhinos duo as Harry Newman hailed<\/a>Brad Arthur excited for ‘big one’ after pleasing Leeds Rhinos win<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JAMIE JONES-BUCHANAN has described his first few months as Leeds Rhinos\u2019 chief executive as \u201camazing\u201d \u2013 and insisted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-557795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557795","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=557795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}