Rhinos continue Rob Burrow legacy with MND Awareness game

Leeds Rhinos will continue the legacy left by Rob Burrow CBE as they aim to raise awareness and funds for the MND community with the annual MND Awareness game when the Rhinos welcome local rivals Wakefield Trinity to AMT Headingley on Saturday 31^st May, kick off 2.30pm. 

The game will be even more poignant as it comes 48 hours before the first anniversary of Burrow’s passing last year on 2^nd June.

The Rhinos will wear a unique kit for the game, with £10 from the sale of every replica shirt donated to the MND Association across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Last year, the replica shirt produced by the club in partnership with official kit suppliers Oxen for this annual fixture raised over £80,000 which contributed to completing the fundraising for the Leeds Hospitals Charity appeal to build the Rob Burrow Centre for MND at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds.

Since the first MND awareness kit back in 2020, Rhinos official technical partner Oxen have donated £230,000 to MND charities helping to continue to bang the drum for those impacted.

The kit for 2025, which has been approved by the Burrow family, features the iconic image of Rob from the 2011 Grand Final when he scored the greatest Old Trafford try of all time to help the Rhinos to Super League glory. However, the image is made up of the names of the 196 players that Rob played with for club and country during his illustrious career and is completed by the names of Rob’s three children and his wife Lindsey for a total of 200 names.

Adult shirts are sized XS to 6XL with Ladies shirts available in sizes 8-18 for £51.99. Junior shirts and toddler kits are available for £39.99 in sizes age 6 to 14 and ages 0 to 4 respectively. Fans can order now by clicking here.

There will be a limited number of replica shirts available which will be split between the Club Shop at AMT Headingley Stadium, which opens at 12 noon today and will be open for tonight’s clash with Hull KR (access for match attendees only after 5pm) and online from store.therhinos.co.uk from 7am.

Commenting on the design, Leeds Rhinos Head of Media & PR Phil Daly said, “Rob had so many incredible qualities but one thing that has really stood out over the last year is what a brilliant team mate he was. His former team mates have shared so many wonderful memories of times that Rob was central to, whether that was in the Rhinos squad or on representative duty with Yorkshire, England or Great Britain. 

“After his MND diagnosis in December 2019, he became an inspirational team mate once again, this time to everyone in the MND community and put the spotlight on the disease to aid funding and awareness that has changed the future for those impacted by the disease. 

“A year ago, the whole sport came together to support Lindsey and the Burrow family, especially those former team mates, and it is nice that we are able to include the names of players like Sean O’Loughlin, Paul Wellens and Sam Burgess, to name just three, who were greats of their own clubs but will feature alongside a host of names more familiar to Rhinos fans on this unique Leeds shirt. 

“The list includes players who may have only played one game alongside Rob but remember it with real pride, right up to the guys who played alongside his whole career like Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Kevin Sinfield and Danny McGuire plus current Rhinos Ryan Hall, Kallum Watkins, Cameron Smith, Ash Handley and Mikolaj Oledzki. We hope people like the design and we can continue to support the MND community in Rob’s memory,” added Daly.