Defeated Ash Handley says it was “miraculous” he even played in the Betfred Super League Grand Final - and Leeds will be back better in 2023. The prolific winger was left helpless to prevent Rhinos losing 24-12 against champions St Helens in Saturday’s title decider.
But it was impressive he was even on the Old Trafford turf after missing their two play-offs games with a troublesome foot injury. Handley, 26, conceded: “It was tough to get back. I couldn’t really walk last week so it settled down quite well .
“At the beginning of the week we did some running sessions to see how it’d go. I put it in uncomfortable positions to see how I coped with it. And back-to-back running sessions is what I needed to do to see how I pulled up and how I came back in training. Miraculously it felt fine. It’s a bit sore now. But as the week went on, I felt I’d be alright.”
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Underdogs Leeds, who finished fifth, fell behind after just 147 seconds of the Grand Final when Saints’ England prop Matty Lees went over untouched. Jon Bennison added another although Kruise Leeming’s score moments before the interval left Rhinos just 12-6 down at the break.
Tries from Konrad Hurrell and Mark Percival saw Saints pull away in the second period but that early score had already done the damage. Handley admitted: “They always start well. That was our mindset going into the game: try and contain them for the first 20.
“We did manage to sneak one try before the end of the half. But I think we just let them get too far ahead. We moved the ball well. “There was a controversial call towards the back end when he said it was a forward pass and that would have been a try and there’d only have been six points in it. But we left ourselves with too much to do. Saints are a great team, obviously. They were always going to be hard to beat.”
Still, Rhinos can look back on a terrific second half to the season when they transformed from relegation candidates to title hopefuls following head coach Rohan Smith’s arrival in May. Their form of late bodes well for next term when the Australian will have had a full pre-season to work with them.
Handley, still hopeful of an England call-up for the World Cup, said: “It’s amazing. We spoke about it in the dressing room afterwards. When this has settled down and we’ve had time to reflect on the year, we will know it’s pretty remarkable what we’ve done. It’s five months since Rohan came in and he’s been great for us. And in the bigger picture it’s probably just the start of what’s to come. I’m looking forward to next year. Just not right now!”
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