Leeds Rhinos' Ash Handley reveals key approach, targets winning run, answers Catalans rumour ahead of Hull FC

Saturday’s game is Rhinos’ first since the death of club legend Rob Burrow 13 days earlier and follows a 32-4 home victory over Castleford Tigers on June 1. That meant Leeds ended the first half of the Betfred Super League season in credit, with seven wins and six defeats, though they remain two points outside the top-six.

The derby against 10th-placed Castleford was the first of four successive meetings with teams below Rhinos on the table, giving them an opportunity to push into the play-off spots. After Saturday’s trip to second-bottom Hull they have back-to-back home fixtures - albeit two weeks apart - against ninth-placed Leigh Leopards and bottom side London Broncos.

According to long-serving winger Ash Handley, Rhinos aren’t focussing on where their opponents are on the ladder, but a winning streak would give them momentum for the business end of the campaign. “We want to beat everyone we can, regardless of where they are in the table,” Handley stressed. “If we can get a run together it’ll be great.”

Hull have won just once this term and suffered recent defeats to London and Castleford. The heat will be back on coach Rohan Smith if Leeds lose, but Handley stressed the players are concentrating on getting their act together, rather than focussing on outside noise.

“It is obviously about what we can control as a playing group,” he stated. “The responsibility is on the players and we are just trying to implement the plan and do what we can to make things right: try our best, put our front foot forward and work together as a team. I thought we did that [in the previous game].”

Despite scoring five tries against Tigers, Leeds will aim to be more clinical on attack this weekend. Handley reflected: “We bombed a few chances and I thought a couple of calls went against us as well.

“It could have been more points, but we had to be happy with what we got. We came up with a simple plan and executed it quite well. There were still a few little errors in there, but you will have errors; you can’t have a perfect game the whole time.

“Things will go against us in games, but you’ve just got to ride them. There’s still a bit to do, but we’ve had a couple of weeks to execute things a bit better and we’ll go from there.”

Handley opened the scoring in the derby victory, with his 10th Super League try of 2024. He has been arguably Rhinos’ best and most consistent player this term and revealed his approach is to “try and play never up, never down”.

“I don’t get too down about things and just try to play with a smile on my face and work hard,” he said. “I enjoy the games when you come off and know you’ve had a dig and worked hard. I always work hard, no matter what the score is or where we’re at as a team; I always try as hard as I can every game.”

A reshuffle in the backs saw Handley playing alongside Harry Newman against Tigers. He added: “Harry [was playing left-centre with me for the first time in a while, but we’ll just keep working on our partnership and try to get some more tries.

Meanwhile, it seems Handley, who is contracted for two more seasons, won’t be playing for Catalans Dragons next season. A report in Perpignan newspaper L’Independant said Catalans had identified Handley as a potential transfer target, but he said: “I don’t know where that came from.”