'Playing some unreal stuff': Leeds Rhinos co-captain Ash Handley reveals teammate 'we'd struggle without'

Full-back Lachie Miller was man of the match for Rhinos in last week’s 22-14 win at Leigh Leopards and leads Betfred Super League in metres made and tackle busts, despite missing the season’s first four rounds through injury. Handley said: “Lachie has been unbelievable for us.

“He is playing some unreal stuff and I think he has got himself to a level now where we’d struggle without him, he is such a key player for us. He is so fit and he is playing at such a high level.”

Handley has also had a big year, playing in all Rhinos’ 23 games so far. He had a new left-side partner last week in debutant Chris Hankinson, who joined Leeds from Salford Red Devils three days before the game.

It was a difficult start for the former Wigan Warriors man, but he is set to feature again when Rhinos visit Castleford Tigers on Saturday and centre Handley reckons he will be an asset during the business end of the season. “He trained properly once with us really [before last week’s game],” Handley pointed out.

“He has been in a different system for a while and it takes some time to get used to it. We have got a pretty particular system as well, but I think he will be good for us with a bit more training and when we can get a few more combinations together. I thought he defended really well at some stages.

“It is just about getting a partnership together. We’ve had a few people on my wing now and we’ve got Ganno [Morgan Gannon] as well, back in the back-row, so it’s not easy defending as an edge when you are changing people all the time, but we will be all right.”

The win over Leigh was the 250th game of Handley’s career - and that only increased his admiration for Rhinos’ veteran winger Ryan Hall. He admitted: “I can’t believe Hally has done 500 - I couldn’t imagine doing my full career all over again. It’s pretty crazy.”

More important than the milestone was two competition points which kept Rhinos in the hunt for a home play-off. With six rounds remaining, they are fifth in Super League, just a point behind third-placed Leigh and trailing St Helens on for and against.

The top-four are guaranteed a home tie in the post-season series and Handley said Rhinos will go into Saturday’s derby in high spirits. “It was an absolutely massive game,” he noted of last week’s victory. “If we had lost that we’d have been five points behind Leigh. Every game is important now to the run-in to the play-offs so we were glad to get the win. Leigh are a really good side and they challenged us. They throw the ball about well, they are attack-minded and they have got some special players in their side. It took a lot for us to win it.”

Rhinos trailed 8-0 early on and Handley feels they will need to show similar battling qualities this weekend and make fewer mistakes. “We were killing ourselves a bit, I thought,” he said of the early stages of last week.

“We made some errors and soft missed tackles, one from myself that led to a try. But it is about trying to work hard as a group, keep ourselves in it until the very end and then hopefully one of our star men can come up with something special.”