Leeds Rhinos news as star man in danger of missing England's Ashes campaign
Leeds Rhinos co-captain Ash Handley’s chances of being available for this autumn’s Ashes are hanging in the balance.
The centre is a member of England’s Betfred Super League-based training squad for the series against Australia, which begins at Wembley on October 25, but has a groin injury which is likely to require surgery. After missing the final four rounds of the regular season, he returned in last weekend’s agonising elimination play-off loss to St Helens.
Asked after that game if Handley could play for England, Leeds coach Brad Arthur admitted: “I don’t know. We need to see how he pulls up. He did a pretty good job, but you could see he couldn’t fully accelerate at times. It’s up to Ash and we’ll see where he is physically with his injury.”
Arthur paid tribute to Handley for “managing to get himself out there” after just a month on the sidelines. He added: “He needs a groin operation, but in four weeks he managed to get himself back out on the field. It just shows how much [Rhinos’ players] care for the club and what the club means to them.”
The agonising play-off exit, to a try after the hooter had sounded, was a sad end to two of the side’s time at Leeds. Second-rower Morgan Gannon will join NRL outfit New Zealand Warriors next year and prop Sam Lisone - who was a substitute in all Leeds’ 30 competitive games this season - has signed for Hull FC.
“It’s disappointing for those guys,” Arthur reflected. “It is going to be hard for them to forget those last two seconds, that last play, but they have made a massive contribution to the team this year. It is hard to keep teams, they always look a bit different from year to year so we wish those guys well. Their contribution has been huge to the team, but they have other priorities and things going on moving forward and we hope they kick on.”
Players who are contracted for 2026 will remain around the club for a few days to go through reviews before beginning their autumn break. Pre-season begins in November and Arthur conceded it will “take a while” to get over Saturday’s controversial defeat and especially the manner of it.
He said: “I am just going to try and focus on all the positives of our season and how much the players bought in and how strong the club is. We need to use it and make sure we are better next year when we get into this situation again, in finals and big games
“Sometimes when there’s five or 10 minutes to go and the game’s gone, it’s not easy to swallow, but you know it’s coming. The whole way through that game it felt like we were in total control and we were going to be the winning team.
“I thought we played really well; we moved the ball around, defended well and defended our tryline well. There was a high penalty count against us and our responses to the penalties was good and positive, we had a try overturned - we just needed a bit of luck.
“I’ve told the players I am proud of them. There’s going to be some conjecture around decisions, but we can’t buy into that because it’ll just make us more frustrated. We’ve just got to take it for what it is, in life you don’t always get dealt the best set of cards and you’ve just got to deal with it.”