Fitness boost for Leeds Rhinos as young star returns to action

Teenage outside-back Riley Lumb suffered the highs and lows of professional rugby league in his first two senior games for Rhinos earlier this year. He bagged a brace of tries in a man of the match debut in a win at Hull FC in April, but tore a hamstring a minute into his second match, against London Broncos, less than a week later.

After a long recovery, the highly-rated 19-year-old made his comeback for Rhinos’ reserves against Wigan Warriors a fortnight ago and has been named in the initial 21-man squad for Friday’s visit of Catalans Dragons. That is good news for Leeds, with first-choice winger Ash Handley unavailable for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on a wrist injury.

“I’m all good, it felt good to be back,” Lumb told the Yorkshire Evening Post. “I tried getting plenty of carries, I had limited minutes, but I enjoyed it. The plan was to play 40 minutes just to ease me back into it and hopefully I’ll get a few games under my belt before the season finishes.”

Lumb took the layoff in his stride. He reflected: “It was more annoying than anything, the timing of it. Injuries happen, but I had just broken through into the first team and played well.

“It has been a long 15 weeks, but I am glad to be back. The medical staff have been great, they have all looked after me really well.”

The injury was a grade three C hamstring tear, which isn’t a new experience for Lumb. “I did it last year as well, the same injury,” he recalled. “It was something that re-occurred, but hopefully we did it right this time and it won’t happen again. We knew what to expect with it so we rehabbed it well and hopefully it’s all done.

“It happened 30 seconds into the game, I took one carry, stepped off it and it went. It’s just one of those things. It has been a whirlwind for me this year, I was definitely excited to start playing some first team games, but that happened. I’ve just got to get used to it.”

Rhinos have had a change of coach since Lumb’s brief taste of first team action, with Brad Arthur replacing Rohan Smith. The teenager has had only limited time with the new boss, but noted: “He seems like a good coach, he knows what he wants his players to do and he tells you, so I am looking forward to playing under him.”

Of the prospect of another first team appearance this year, Lumb said: “Who knows? It is late in the year, but you never know what’s going to happen. I’d like to think I’d be able to get a few games, but I am definitely not going to rush it. I’ll just see what happens for the rest of the season and then I’m looking forward to a big pre-season. Hopefully I’ll kick on for next year and get some more Super League games.”

Rhinos’ reserves play Wakefield Trinity in a curtain-raiser to Friday’s game and Lumb could feature in that if not selected for the first team. “There’s some good players, people like Presley Cassell and Mason Corbett,” Lumb said of Leeds’ second string.

“They are young lads, but playing well for us and I think they’ve got a big future in the game. The academy is providing some good players and hopefully we can come through the system into the first team.”