Leeds Rhinos news: Super League rivals Hull FC and York Knights keen to keep loan men including Harry Newman
Two rival clubs are hoping to retain Leeds Rhinos players on loan for at least another week.
With no major injuries, Rhinos are using loan deals as a way of ensuring squad members stay fit and playing at a high level while they wait for a first team opening. England centre Harry Newman has featured for Hull FC in their past two Betfred Super League matches and was joined last week by prop Jeremiah Mata’utia, who made his debut as a substitute during a 50-10 win at Castleford Tigers.
Rhinos’ Ben Littlewood has been the starting loose-forward for York Knights in their last couple of games and all three have impressed at their temporary club. Hull interim-boss Andy Last confirmed he hopes to have Newman and Mata’utia available for Sunday’s visit of Toulouse Olympique.
“It’s probably one of those where we’ll have a chat with Leeds in the early part of the week,” he said. “They’ll probably look at assessing their squad health and then we’ll take it from there. It’d be great if we can have them both again, they have fitted in really, really well.”
Mata’utia, 21, has played only twice for Rhinos since joining them from North Queensland Cowboys in the off-season. Of his performance against Tigers, Last reflected: “He did well. He showed he has got a really strong ball-carry.
“There’s probably a little bit of work to do on him defensively on his movements and stuff, but he is certainly a big body and that big body was something we lacked coming off the bench the week before [against St Helens].
“With the likes of Yusuf [Aydin] and Brad [Fash] it’s a nice mix of body profile and different strengths. Brad’s a very good wrestler and good defensive player while big Jerry has a good, strong ball-carry so that complements each other.”
Of Newman, Last added: “He played exceptionally well, made some good breaks, defensively was strong and is enjoying his time here. He has been at Leeds all his career so a change of scenery can sometimes be a good thing; it can freshen you up and it’s certainly freshened Harry up.”
Littlewood also impressed when he made his second appearance for York, starting at loose-forward in their 38-14 win against Toulouse Olympique. “He has been really good,” coach Mark Applegarth said.
“He has been really busy defensively and he came up with some really nice carries [against Toulouse]. He has slotted in perfect, as you’d expect. Massive credit to Chev [Walker, Rhinos’ reserves coach] how he has been developing those lads at Leeds. I speak to [assistant-coach] Jamie Langley at Leeds regularly and he rates him very highly. I really like working with him.”
Applegarth said the loan will be assessed week by week. He stated: “As long as Leeds are happy for us to keep Ben and Ben is playing like that, I’d be happy to keep him. He is going all right at the moment.”