page_title: Sport in Leeds
section_title: Rugby league
hierarchical_section_title: Sport in Leeds / Teams based in Leeds / Rugby league
caption_attribution_description: English: South Leeds Stadium
context_page_description: Leeds has a strong sporting heritage, with the Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Leeds Rhinos and Yorkshire Carnegie playing at Headingley Stadium, and Leeds United F.C. playing at Elland Road. The Headquarters of the Rugby Football League is based in Leeds. Leeds City Council also offer a wide variety of sport, leisure and fitness sessions both in their leisure centres and the community.
context_section_description: Founded as Leeds St. Johns in 1895 the club is now known as the Leeds Rhinos have a long history. In recent years the team has competed in several major finals. Under coach Graham Murray they competed in the first Super League grand final in 1998 but were defeated by Wigan Warriors. A year later Leeds won the Rugby League Challenge Cup, defeating London Broncos at Wembley in the last final held at Wembley stadium before its re-building. After several years without a trophy the appointment of Tony Smith of coach saw Leeds top the league at the end of the season and went on to be crowned Super League champions on 16 October 2004 after defeating arch rivals Bradford Bulls 16-8 at Old Trafford. In 2005 the Rhinos reached the final of both the Challenge Cup and the Super League but lost both games to Hull F.C. and Bradford Bulls respectively.  Leeds now hold the 2007 crown after thrashing former champions St Helens 33-6 in the Grand Final.  This was Coach Tony Smith's final game before leaving to be G.B coach and this win makes it two grand final trophies in four years. They won the next two super league grand finals, topping the regular season league table in the latter, setting a record for the most consecutive grand final wins. They also won the crown in 2011, coming from 5th place after the regular season rounds. The team reached the challenge cup final for the first time at the redeveloped Wembley Stadium in 2010, and then again in 2011, losing out 6-30 to the Warrington Wolves and then 18-28 to Wigan Warriors. Leeds Rhinos are the best supported Rugby League club in the United Kingdom, their Headingley ground holds up to 20,500 spectators and is regularly filled, with sell out's particularly common, at games against Bradford Bulls, St. Helens and Wigan Warriors.  Leeds Based Tetley's Bitter, Leeds Building Society, Jet2 and Leeds Carnegie are all major sponsors of the Leeds Rhinos.
  Hunslet (previously New Hunslet, and Hunslet Hawks) are a rugby league team based in the Beeston district of South Leeds. They were formed in Hunslet in May 1883 as Hunslet F.C. with the merger of two local teams. They were the first club to win All Four Cups, which they did in the 1907-08 season. Hunslet currently play in League One, and now play at the John Charles Centre for Sport (previously the South Leeds Stadium) in Beeston, Leeds. They were relegated from the Championship in the 2015 season.
  Bramley RLFC were a rugby league team based in the Bramley district of West Leeds, they were founded in 1879. At the end of the 1999 season Bramley resigned from the Northern Ford Premiership to become a feeder team for Leeds Rhinos, but this never materialised. They were reformed as Bramley Buffaloes, a supporter-owned club.
  There are numerous British Amateur Rugby League Association teams based in Leeds. East Leeds and Oulton Raiders currently play in the top division of the National Conference League. Rugby League is also played at many secondary schools in the Leeds district as well.
  Leeds Carnegie (Part of Leeds Metropolitan University) sponsor the Challenge Cup as well as Headingley Stadium, they have become one of the biggest sponsors in British Sport outside of Football.
caption: South Leeds Stadium, home of Hunslet
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "WWL", "Image Make": "WWL", "Image Model": "PDC3035", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:02:18 19:38:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2270", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail YResolution": "1/96", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4824", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4721", "EXIF ExposureTime": "10/2369", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:02:18 19:38:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:02:18 19:38:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "82/11", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "4700", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "0", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}