Saturday’s game is Rhinos’ first since the death of club legend Rob Burrow 13 days earlier and follows a 32-4 home victory over Castleford Tigers on June 1. That meant Leeds ended the first half of the Betfred Super League season in credit, with seven wins and six defeats, though they remain two points outside the top-six.
The derby against 10th-placed Castleford was the first of four successive meetings with teams below Rhinos on the table, giving them an opportunity to push into the play-off spots. After Saturday’s trip to second-bottom Hull they have back-to-back home fixtures – albeit two weeks apart – against ninth-placed Leigh Leopards and bottom side London Broncos.
Long-serving winger Ash Handley claims that although the Rhinos aren’t paying attention to their rivals’ standings, a winning run would provide them confidence heading into the final stretch of the season. Handley emphasized, “We want to beat everyone we can, regardless of where they are in the table.” “It will be great if we can go for a run together.”
According to long-serving winger Ash Handley, Rhinos aren’t focussing on where their opponents are on the ladder, but a winning streak would give them momentum for the business end of the campaign. “We want to beat everyone we can, regardless of where they are in the table,” Handley stressed. “If we can get a run together it’ll be great.”
This season, Hull has only triumphed once, and they have just lost to Castleford and London. If Leeds lose, the pressure will be back on manager Rohan Smith, but Handley emphasized that the players are focused on getting their act together rather than paying attention to outside chatter.
“Clearly, it’s about what our playing group can control,” he said. “The players bear the responsibility, and our only aim is to carry out the strategy and make amends by giving it our all, leading by example, and cooperating as a cohesive unit. I believed that [in the prior game] was what we did.Leeds will try to be more efficient on attack this Saturday, even though they scored five tries against the Tigers. Handley thought to herself:
“We had to be content with the points we received even if there may have been more. We devised a straightforward strategy and carried it out admirably. You can’t have a flawless game all the time, thus there will always be a few small mistakes in there.
“In games, things will go against us; you just have to ride them.” While there is still work to be done, we have had a few weeks to improve the way things are done. After that, we’ll decide where to proceed.
Handley’s 10th Super League try of 2024 set the tone for the derby victory. He stated that his strategy is to “try and” has been maybe the Rhinos’ greatest and most reliable player this season.
A reshuffle in the backs saw Handley playing alongside Harry Newman against Tigers. He added: “Harry [was playing left-centre with me for the first time in a while, but we’ll just keep working on our partnership and try to get some more tries.
Meanwhile, it seems Handley, who is contracted for two more seasons, won’t be playing for Catalans Dragons next season. A report in Perpignan newspaper L’Independant said Catalans had identified Handley as a potential transfer target, but he said: “I don’t know where that came from.”
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