Thursday evening sees Leeds Rhinos Academy play their penultimate regular season fixture as Yorkshire neighbours Wakefield Trinity arrive at Stanningley, kick off 7pm.

With a tough test against Wigan left in the fixture list before the top four teams in their year's Under-18s break off to play each other to decide the 2026 Grand Finalists, Chev Walker's side have shown great maturity and composure since losing against Hull KR at Stanningley to put themselves in a strong position to be a Finalist. In addition to keeping St Helens scoreless last month, a strong 80 minutes against Warrington Wolves a fortnight ago saw two tries from Seth Marchant lead to a 22-6 final score at Victoria Park as the young Rhinos' development continues to trend in the right way heading into another test against Trinity.

Currently ranked second in the table behind an unbeaten Warriors outfit, Leeds hope to get a similar result to the 12-try performance they produced at AMT Headingley last year against Wakefield - a game that contained five of the current Under-18s squad. This particular fixture has tended to go in favour of the Rhinos, who have won every meeting against Thursday's opponents since the start of the decade. Last time out at Stanningley in particular in 2024, George Brown scored four tries on his first Academy appearance as part of a 62-12 final score.

Under the guidance of Kieron Purtill in his first season as Wakefield's Academy Head Coach, Trinity has had a season of two halves as they arrive in Leeds looking to break a five-game losing streak.

With a new youth operation in place for 2026, Wakefield got their year off to the perfect start as they ran quickly into four wins against Hull FC, Bradford, Leigh and Huddersfield by the start of May, but a run of consecutive defeats has seen the club fall outside of the top four places. St Helens, Warrington and Hull KR all inflicted losses up until the middle of June, before Trinity rallied in close contests against Castleford and Wigan but eventually lost both games by two points.

This week's game is their final fixture in the regular season, so victory is crucial against the Rhinos as well as results for Hull KR and Castleford to go in Wakefield's favour to jump them into the Grand Final qualifiers.

Last meeting

Leeds Rhinos produced a high-scoring performance on home soil as a hat trick from Joe Diskin led a 12-try win over Wakefield in last year's meeting at AMT Headingley.

Take a look at the highlights:

Recent Form

Rhinos

Won 22-6 vs Warrington Wolves

Won 58-0 vs St Helens

Lost 20-12 vs Hull KR

Trinity

Lost 24-22 vs Wigan Warriors

Lost 26-24 vs Castleford Tigers

Lost 40-10 vs Hull KR

This week's games

Huddersfield Giants vs Warrington Wolves

Leigh Leopards vs Bradford Bulls

Hull FC vs Castleford Tigers

Leeds Rhinos vs Wakefield Trinity

Ticket Information

Entry to the game is priced at £5 adults, £3 concessions and free for Under-16s.

Fans are reminded when parking at Stanningley to be courteous to the surrounding residents and use either the main car park or large car park on entrance to the ground.