Leeds Rhinos captain Ash Handley addresses away form, admits 'we beat ourselves sometimes'
Skipper Ash Handley says Leeds Rhinos want to take their home form on the road.
Rhinos have won all seven games at AMT Headingley this season, but lost four of their eight away matches in league and cup. They are on their travels for the next two weeks, at Toulouse Olympique on Friday and Warrington Wolves six days later and Handley confirmed: “We have spoken about being good away from home.”
He said: “We are good at home at the moment and we have started pretty poorly and not been very clinical in away games so we want to rectify that this week.”
A big start will be important at Stade Ernest Wallon, particularly in hot conditions, but Handley also reckons Leeds will need to repeat the patience they showed in last week’s 24-16 win against St Helens. Leeds dominated territory in the first half, but Saints scored tries from each of their three attacks and Rhinos found themselves eight points down at half-time.
They responded with a much more clinical and composed second half effort and Handley admitted: “It was a good win, you need to win those games. We beat ourselves sometimes, lose a bit of concentration or control.
“It is difficult to attack constantly on someone’s goalline, I don’t think people realise how hard that is, especially when it’s stop-start and there’s no real fatigue in the game. The goalline is a pretty difficult place to attack and score from and we were camped down there for a long period of time, but there wasn’t any panic. At half-time we knew we just had to stick to our process.”
It was a particularly satisfying victory for Handley who made his 250th appearance for Leeds. The centre will go into this week’s match needing two tries to reach 150 for his career and four points for 500 in Super League, having broken into the first team 12 years ago.
“We were saying when it’s somebody’s milestone we always seem to lose, so it was good to get the win,” he said of last week. “It’s a nice milestone, something you look back on at the end of your career.
“I think it’s a pretty big achievement to have, 250 games at one club. It has been a big journey and I am pretty grateful. My first game seems like a long time ago, but also it feels like it has gone in a flash.”