Leeds Rhinos coach gives Ash Handley injury update, hails his 'best win' v Hull KR

The centre was substituted midway through the second half of Leeds’ 28-6 home win against Betfred Super League leaders Hull KR on Thursday and Arthur revealed that was to rest a long-term issue. “It was his groins,” the coach said. “He has been carrying them for the season. I’m not sure how bad they are; we have got a fair turnaround this week [to the game at Hull FC a week on Saturday], but we are in a position where we’ve got guys there who can do a good job. We put Kallum [Watkins] there - what a luxury he is to be able to put him there and we don’t miss a beat.”

In front of a season’s best crowd of 16,260 at AMT Headingley, Rhinos’ second win against Hull KR in successive months lifted them to third in Betfred Super League, level on points with second-placed Wigan Warriors who play Wakefield Trinity on Sunday. St Helens dropped to fourth and have a tough game at home to Hull FC this evening (Friday).

Arthur praised the “outstanding” atmosphere and felt the result was a step forward, following a 64-6 hammering of Castleford Tigers five days earlier. He said: “After winning with 60 points last week and a good, clinical performance, the hard thing is to go and do it the next week against the best team in the comp. We’ve still got a bit of work to do; we want to work extremely hard at a week-to-week mentality, but in the back of our heads, we are desperate to try and get a home final.”

Rhinos were without four props, plus co-captain Cameron Smith and Arthur added: “I am happy for the boys, they have worked hard. I am really proud of their mentality around not focusing on what was missing from our team, but what was in our team and other blokes stepping up.

“That was evident last week with Keenan [Palasia], our two back-rowers and Kallum - and they went to another level tonight for the club and their teammates. They took the responsibility on themselves and sometimes that’s what happens when guys are given opportunities they might not necessarily get. Keenan knew he had to step up and did a great job. He was great physically and our two wingers were great physically with the ball, too.”

Describing it as the best performance of his time at Leeds, the coach added: “I feel like it has been building towards that. The last couple of weeks we have got on top of some red zone errors. I have to be careful, I don’t want to squash our mentality and how we play because I think that’s a point of difference for us and makes us hard to defend.

“Sometimes we have got to wear some of the mistakes or looseness that comes with it, but as long as we are competitive and keep having the right attitude, I will live with it. We hadn’t won on a five-day turnaround all season so we changed it around this week and that’s another thing about the team I like, they are adaptable. Sometimes teams want to be in the routine of doing the same thing every week, but these guys have adapted really well to changes when I feel they’ve been needed.”