'It's been tough': Harry Newman lifts lid on losing his place, Hull FC loan and Leeds Rhinos return
England star Harry Newman has reflected on one of the toughest spells of his career as he prepares to return home with Leeds Rhinos.
The 26-year-old centre is no stranger to adversity having endured several lengthy injury setbacks during his career, including a broken leg. But losing his place and being loaned to a rival club was a new challenge.
Newman featured in Rhinos’ first seven games this season, but was then replaced by former State of Origin three-quarter Jack Bird who joined Leeds in February from NRL club Wests Tigers. Loaned to Hull to maintain his match fitness, Newman featured three times for the black and whites before being restored to Leeds’ starting side at Wigan Warriors last week after Bird underwent minor knee surgery.
Newman is set to continue in the right-centre against his hometown club Huddersfield Giants at AMT Headingley tomorrow (Friday) and has stressed Rhinos is where he wants to be ahead of his move to new NRL outfit Perth Bears in pre-season. “It has been tough,” Newman said of the past few months.
“It is the first time in my career I have experienced something like this, but I kept my head down, had a few games at Hull, tried my hardest and enjoyed my time there. But I wanted to come back here, to the club I’ve been at since I was 14 and pull that shirt on again.
“It is always a proud moment and I thought I went all right defensively [last week]. I didn’t get much chance with the ball, but it is a team game and we have got to be better this week as a team, from one-17.”
Rhinos have no fixture next weekend and Bird could be back in contention for the home game against St Helens in two week’s time. That will give coach Brad Arthur a selection headache, but Newman insisted: “I have just got to focus on myself, get my training and my performances right and the rest will take care of itself.”
Though the 24-4 defeat at Wigan cost Leeds top spot in Betfred Super League, Newman reckons there are positives to take into Friday. “Our physicality and effort was really good and that’s what we spoke about in the changing rooms,” he said.
“That’s what we stand for and we ticked the right boxes in that, but we didn’t execute in some big moments and they did. That was probably the difference.
“We have got to be better than that and we know we are better than that, but the pleasing thing is we stuck at it and our physicality was great. We went after them, with and without the ball and that is something we can really build on going into a home game [this] week.”
Giants have new coach Jim Lenihan at the helm and Newman expects them to be fired up. But he stressed: “We are coming off the back of a disappointing loss so we will focus on ourselves, put our best foot forward, play our best game and if we do that we’ll come away with a win.”