Leeds Rhinos sweat on key injury as Brad Arthur delivers strong verdict of Hull KR win

Leeds Rhinos will have to wait and discover the extent of a niggling injury to captain Ash Handley after he was forced off in their victory over Hull KR on Thursday evening.

Handley has been battling with a problem in his groins for most of 2025 and ultimately had to leave the field in the final quarter of their emphatic victory against the Super League leaders.

He was replaced by Kallum Watkins and didn’t return, and while Arthur admitted the problem will have to be checked, the prospect of a long turnaround for Leeds – they don’t play again until next Saturday – means those fears of any serious issue could be tempered somewhat.

Arthur revealed: “It’s his groins. He’s been carrying it for the season and I’m not sure how bad they are, hopefully okay: we’ve got a fair turnaround this week. We’ve got guys there who can do a good job too like Kallum. What a luxury he is.”

Arthur declared Leeds’ victory on Thursday their best of 2025 so far, and admitted he was thrilled with their attitude in dismantling the Super League leaders.

“Yeah; I feel like it’s been building towards that,” he said. “We’ve got on top of some red zone errors but I don’t want to squash our mentality and how we played because it’s a point of difference for us.

“Sometimes we’ve got wear a little bit of the mistakes or looseness. As long as we keep having the right attitude I’ll live with it.”

And perhaps unsurprisingly, Watkins did not avoid praise once again from Arthur after playing in a multitude of positions across the 80 minutes.

“I’ll let him pick the team where he wants to play next week – nothing fazes him,” he said of Watkins.

“It’s the best signing Bleasey [Ian Blease] has ever made in his career.”