Never a dull moment - how a car crash and dog bite gave Leeds Rhinos a fright

Centre Harry Newman escaped uninjured from a “scary” road traffic collision on the eve of last Sunday’s win over Huddersfield Giants - 24 hours after second-rower Rhyse Martin needed an injection following being bitten by a dog.

Agar admitted Newman’s accident, on the way to training, was "a worry for us” before Rhinos' first match back from the Covid-19 shutdown.

He said: “Any road traffic accident of any kind is a pretty traumatic experience and this was a fair old smash.

“We spoke to him on his way into training and he was in a pretty traumatised state. His mum brought him in and we got the doctor to check him out immediately so we weren’t worried about any internal injuries or anything like that; it was all about Harry being in the right frame of mind to play. His immediate reaction was ‘I am all right’, but we checked on him on Saturday night and he was in a much better place than Saturday morning.

“He was fine on Sunday, but it was a really traumatic, emotional 24 hours for him. We left the decision to play with him, we were happy to let him sit it out and still guarantee his spot the next week.”

Agar stressed: “We didn’t want him to feel under pressure to play in the fear of us having a good win and him not getting in the team for the next game.

“His form and training has been good enough, but he is a competitor and he wanted to play. He gave his usual energy and commitment but there were a couple of parts in his game that maybe his big day before played a part in.

“In hindsight we might have made a different decision, but the bigger picture is, thankfully, he escaped from a pretty nasty situation.”

Martin was walking his dog when it had a “disagreement” with another canine. Agar reported: “Rhyse tried to split them up and one of them latched on to his hand.

“He spent Friday in A and E getting a tetanus jab. It was on top of his hand so it didn’t affect him catching and gripping too much, but - after a seamless three weeks - we had a couple of last-minute situations.

“Never a dull moment.”

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Laura Collins