Leeds Rhinos captain names teammate’s “world-class” trait and defends ‘frustrating’ Huddersfield win

Winger Riley Lumb has just 14 first team appearances to his name, but recently signed a contract extension which will keep him at the club until the end of 2029.

Handley has been playing as Lumb’s centre and reckons the 20-year-old – who boasts six tries so far this season – is on course for a bright future.

“Riley is improving every week,” Handley said of the youngster who came through Rhinos’ system after joining Leeds from Castleford club Lock Lane.

“He works hard on his game and nothing much fazes him – he is pretty level-headed and takes things in his stride.

“Some of the catches he is coming up with are world-class. Not many people would be able to take a ball like he is doing so he has earned his contract and hopefully he has many more years to come at the Rhinos.”

Lumb, who stepped into the team after star signing Maika Sivo suffered a long-term knee injury in pre-season, is set to make his 11th appearance of the year when Super League leaders Hull KR visit AMT Headingley on Friday.

Ash Handley outlines Leeds Rhinos’ biggest 2025 improvement

That will be a stern test following successive wins against the bottom two, but Handley stressed: “We are just working on what we can control as a team, trying to get us playing well together, regardless of the opposition.

“We’ve got a process we want to stick by and if we can stick to that process we normally come out on the right side of the result. We’ve been working on that and it has been working so far.”

Leeds Rhinos have struggled to get over the line at times this year, managing just one try in the first half against both Salford Red Devils and Huddersfield before dominating after the break.

Handley insisted: “There were a lot of stoppages in [last week’s] game and it is tough to break people down when they are fresh.

“The whole concept of the game is to get the other team in a cycle, get them tackling and make them tired, to then break them apart.

“It’s not easy to score points when you are right on their line, it is probably the most difficult place to break teams down so it was tough for us, but we stuck with it.

“I’ve spoken to a couple of people who said it seemed frustrating, but we were patient and we knew we’d be able to break them in the second half and that’s what we did.”

Hull KR will challenge Leeds’ defence, but Handley is confident that aspect of their game is in good shape after conceding one try in the last 160 playing minutes.

“Everyone’s working hard in the system we are working with,” he said. “We wanted to keep Huddersfield to zero and we just missed out at the end.

“They had a couple of sets on our line and we probably got a bit tired, we made a few silly mistakes and when you are defending back to back sets it is tough for any team, against any opposition.

“We probably gave them a try rather than earning one so we were disappointed with that, but on the whole, our defence has probably been the biggest improvement this year.”