England call-up just the start for Leeds Rhinos' in-form centre Harry Newman

After Rhinos’ disappointing loss to Hull in round one, when he played on the right-wing, Newman switched into his favoured centre role and has been in eye-catching form since then.

New England coach Shaun Wane’s were among the eyes Newman caught and the outcome was an invite to join the national performance squad and begin preparations for this year’s home Test series against Australia.

Newman was a member of the England academy side which beat Australia 2-0 in a home Ashes series in 2018 and last year he played for England Knights when they defeated Jamaica at Emerald Headingley.

The performance squad invite is another leap forward and has come just two years after Newman, now 20, set the Betfred Championship alight during an outstanding dual-registration spell with Featherstone Rovers.

His potential was one of the reasons Rhinos were prepared to let captain Kallum Watkins leave the club midway through last season and he took over the number three jersey this term.

But despite that and his impressive start to 2020, Newman admitted he “wasn’t really expecting” the call to England’s first get together in Manchester later this month.

“Playing in the Knights last year was a great experience and to get a call-up in the initial 31-man squad, I am obviously delighted – but it is only early,” he said.

“It’s round five and we’ve got a long way to go before that Ashes series. For me it is about continuing my form, playing well and obviously results like [last Thursday] are good for the team.”

Newman was contacted by email last week and Rhinos coach Richard Agar confirmed his invite at training.

“I was absolutely buzzing and I am looking forward to seeing what’s to come,” added Newman who has scored 11 tries in 31 first team appearances for Rhinos.

He made his debut in 2017 and was the first player born this century to appear in Super League. He said: “Obviously, looking towards the end of the year, there’s the Ashes series and it’s in my mind to get into that and the World Cup in 2021.

“But there’s a long way to go before that and [Thursday] was another great win for us and a great team performance. I thought Galey [Luke Gale] and Rob [Lui] really controlled us, they were outstanding and the rest of the players did their work.”

Newman didn’t get on the scoresheet against Toronto, but provided the final pass for two of Leeds’ 11 touchdowns. The win lifted Rhinos top of the table and will send them into a tough few weeks in buoyant mood.

Newman said: “We spoke all week about it being a very dangerous game. Toronto are getting better week-in and week-out and they showed glimpses of what they can do – offloading here, there and everywhere, it is very hard to defend, when they are shifting from side to side.

“I thought we could have been better in areas and we have spoken about that, but it was a very good attacking performance.”

Rhinos scored six tries in the first half and had the game won by half-time when they led 36-6, but they kept their foot on the pedal in the final 40.

“We spoke about that at half-time,” Newman confirmed. “We had a great start, scoring two quick tries. They got a foothold in the game, scoring one back, but we kicked on from there.

“At half-time we spoke about being ruthless. In the second half they came out firing, which you’d expect being 30 points down, but we managed that and showed what we can do at the back end of the half.

“We were really happy with the win and really happy with the team performance.”

But the going is about to get tougher and Newman pointed out: “We’ve got Catalans away, St Helens at home and Cas away.

“We had a poor start to the season and then we’ve won our next four and we know how important these next three games are in terms of what they could do for us this season.

“We will rest up and get ready for Catalans.”