
Testimonial star Ash Handley has revealed one thing he’d change about his Leeds Rhinos career so far.
Handley, who made his debut in an infamous defeat at London Broncos in 2014, will celebrate 10 seasons with Leeds Rhinos when Wigan Warriors visit AMT Headingley for his benefit match on Sunday – a game that is available to stream.
The three-quarter has scored 127 tries – and two goals – in 212 games for his home city club, including a brace when Rhinos won the Challenge Cup five years ago.
Handley, who will turn 29 the day after Leeds’ opening Betfred Super League game against Wakefield Trinity next month, has also been capped twice by England, but reckons his tally of appearances would be higher if he had been more professional during his early days in the first team.
Handley crossed 13 times in 20 games during Rhinos’ treble-winning campaign in 2015 – though he didn’t play in either final – but admits he didn’t feel at home in the Leeds side until three years later.
On what he would do differently if he had his time again, he conceded: “I would probably try to knuckle down a little bit earlier.
“If I understood what it took to be a full-time rugby league player at the back end of 2015, I would probably have had a couple more years playing under my belt and I’d have been able to kick on earlier.
“But I took it for granted a little bit, maybe how good the team was around me at the time and what it took to fully commit to being a professional athlete and all the things that come with it.
“I was young at the time, when I made my debut I was 18 and it’s not often people do that. They don’t play at 18 and carry on playing until now.
“People come in at 21/22, so I was still young. You are still knocking about with your mates, everyone’s going out drinking and stuff and you’re not in the same position as some of those people.
“I would have definitely tried to knuckle down and be a bit more professional earlier than I did.”
𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗻…
Leeds Rhinos 🤝 @Ahandley16
Be there to support Ash at his Testimonial game against @WiganWarriorsRL this Sunday at AMT Headingley 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/7OBsg2J3Bf
— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) January 21, 2025
That is advice Handley will pass on to Leeds’ next generation in his role as joint-captain, alongside Cameron Smith.
He stressed: “Now the game is so fast, you need to be fit and strong and so athletic to be good in the game now.
“I don’t think you can afford to be half-hearted, you have to fully commit if you want to go somewhere.”
Sunday’s game against last year’s all-conquering side will provide an indication of how Rhinos are shaping up three weeks out from their opening Super League game and Handley admitted he “couldn’t have asked for a better opponent”.
Looking ahead to Wigan’s visit, he said: “We don’t have any other friendly games so this is a big one to see where we’re at before we get into it.
“It’s going to be taken very seriously, we are going out there to see where we’re at as a team, but also try to win and put our best foot forward for the start of the season.
“Rather than training against each other, we want to see if the plans we’ve been putting in place work against other teams and then we’ll go from there.”
