| TRUSTFUL | With confidence, the football union league leaders embrace decay (8) |
| ECLECTIC | Eastern church leaders embrace Celtic organisation, choosing as seems best (8) |
| EFFUSION | Issue from leaders of European Football Union (8) |
| ROCHDALE | Original 1895 Northern Rugby Football Union club ... Hornets (8) |
| TABLETOP | Where to find league leaders, it's above-board (8) |
| TWICKENHAM | Town in the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames; base of the Rugby Football Union (10) |
| HORNETS | Rochdale ....... , one of the original 22 rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895 (7) |
| HUDDERSFIELD | The Northern Rugby Football Union was formed in ____'s George Hotel, in 1895 |
| NEPIA | NZ rugby union league player, one of the most famous Maori players, born Wairoa 1905 (5) |
| MORALE | Degree of confidence the writer includes in speech (6) |
| BREACH | ___ of confidence, the giving away of a secret (6) |
| PRIVATELY | In confidence, the soldier lay disheartened (9) |
| PREMIERSHIP | Rugby union league in England (11) |
| FK | Union/league points scoring medium, abbrev (2) |
| TITLE | Championship match involving the league leaders |
| JEEPS | Dickie ___, former England captain who was president of the Rugby Football Union in 1976-77 (5) |
| TRADE | Women's ___ Union League (group that, in 1909, coordinated a strike by 20,000 women workers in New Y |
| HASSAN | NBA center Whiteside who was among the league leaders in blocks and rebounds in 2016 |
| ELEVEN | Soccer team ___ league leaders ___ outwardly calm (6) |
| NEWCASTLE | City has fresh lot of wine to entertain these league leaders (9) |
