Leeds Rhinos co-captain Ash Handley has hailed the impact Jamie Langley has already made at Headingley over pre-season. Langley made the switch to Leeds in November after spending three years in rugby union with Sale Sharks.
The former Bradford Bulls and Hull KR player is working alongside Brad Arthur as an assistant coach, with Scott Grix also within the first-team coaching ranks at the club. The 41-year-old is overseeing the Rhinos’ defence and while he has been with the club just over a month, it seems he is already making an impact.
Speaking after Leeds‘ 18-16 friendly win over Wakefield Trinity on Boxing Day, which saw new signing Jake Connor bag a brace of tries to ensure the Rhinos ended the calendar year on a high, Handley had plenty of praise for the new coach and the impression he has managed to make during his short time in West Yorkshire.
“He’s really good actually, he’s got a lot of detail in the way he delivers things,” Handley told Leeds Rhinos’ official channels. “He’s primarily the defence coach and he’s brought in a bit of technique stuff.
“Just some principles for us to focus on and some good habits in training that I think will transfer onto the field.”
Of course, this pre-season campaign is a special one for Handley, with the Rhinos’ next friendly outing being the outside back’s testimonial. The 28-year-old has spent his entire career to date with the Rhinos, making 212 appearances and scoring 127 tries, and he will be the man of the moment when Leeds host Wigan Warriors on January 26.
“We’ve got a bit of down time now until early January and then we’ll come back in and have a good few weeks training to get ready for that and it’s going to be a massive game I think,” Handley added.
“Wigan are the best team at the moment, they’ll put a good side out, we’ll be putting our best side out just to see where we’re at. It would be good to get a full strength side out for the full game just to see how we go and it will put us in good stead for the start of the year.”
