The Duke of Edinburgh joked that he did not need to be reminded how old he was as he was presented with a rugby shirt to mark his upcoming 60th birthday.
Edward and Sophie were posing for pictures on Friday with girls playing Rugby League at Headingley Stadium, in Leeds, when they were each given Leeds Rhinos shirts – two days ahead of his birthday on Sunday.
The duke laughed as he noticed the shirt had “HRH 60” on the back and said to his wife: “Yours is more subtle than mine.”
He told the young players: “Thanks a bunch. I really need to be reminded.”
Sophie held her shirt up with no number and told the girls: “I’m much younger.”
The duke continued to be amused by the number on the back of his shirt and he said: “Even I know there aren’t than many people on the field.”
The royal couple had been on the pitch at Headingley where they watched girls from four Leeds schools go through training drills and chatted to them – asking about how they go into the sport and how their current season was going.
The visit on Friday was taking place on International Women’s Day and, after they arrived, Edward and Sophie were met by two pioneers of women’s rugby league – Julia Lee, the UK’s first female Rugby League referee, and Lisa McIntosh, a former Great Britain rugby league captain who was the first woman of colour to skipper a British sports team.
Both are involved in a project to ensure the story of the first generation of female rugby league players is heard more widely and they showed the duke and duchess around exhibition of the history of women’s rugby league.