YORK City Knights Ladies ended their Women's Super League season in front of a bumper 400-plus crowd at Haxby Road - but with a heavy defeat.

The Knights, bottom of the the table in their maiden campaign in the elite tier of women's rugby, hosted champions elect Leeds Rhinos, who needed victory to seal the title.

As such they brought a healthy following and, with York's men's team's League One title-winning season now over, there was a good turnout of home fans too. They all saw Leeds win 50-6 and lift the silverware.

Knights Ladies head coach Daryl North said: "Leeds needed to win to win the league and they came out fired up.

"For the first 10 minutes we did really well and got in the arm wrestle but we then slackened off a bit and they pounced, and in 25 minutes they put 30 points on us.

"We came out in the second half and it was more even at 20-6. It just took us a while to get into the game.

"Everyone wad tired though - it's been a long hard season with lots of really tough games. We had a few players missing and a few playing with injury so it was still a good effort."

The Knights' try was scored by second-row Emily Farrow, converted by player-of-the-match Ellie Hendry.

Teenager Hendry again excelled at full-back having been switched to that position for the past two games, while forward Alisha Clayton and half-back Mary Tiplady also stood out.