Agony for Harry Newman and Leeds Rhinos after talented centre suffers badly broken leg

The 20-year-old - whose shouts of pain could be heard around the near-empty stadium - was carried from the field on a stretcher and taken by ambulance to a local hospital after being hurt making a tackle 31 minutes into the game.

Rhinos were last night still awaiting a full diagnosis, but coach Richard Agar confirmed: “He has definitely broken his leg, tib and fib [tibia and fibula] we think.”

The Leeds boss reported: “There was some fear he’d broken his hip as well, but they are saying that settled down in the ambulance.

“He is on his way for X-rays and I guess it will depend on what they tell us as to how they operate and what the next step is, whether he needs any screws and plates in or it’s just a pot on

and it’ll heal nicely.

“It’s very difficult to estimate how long, until the X-rays and specialists have seen him, but it will be about a three to six month job.”

Newman played for England Knights last year and was called into the full squad earlier this season.

“We love him to bits,” Agar said.

“He has got the world at his feet and he was selected in the England squad this year so it’s a huge blow for him, but we’re right there with him.

“We’ll do our utmost to keep his spirits high, get him the best possible care and look after him in what’s a tough time

“Typical Harry, as he was coming off on the stretcher he put his thumbs up to us in the stands - he’s a great kid and a great rugby league player.

“It’s always a difficult day when you cop one of these ones.”

Yesterday’s Betfred Super League victory came six days after Rhinos beat Hull KR 48-18 in a Coral Challenge Cup quarter-final.

It was Leeds’ fourth straight win and Hull KR boss Tony Smith felt they played better than in the previous game, but Agar disagreed.

“I thought it was a mixed bag for us,” he said of Rhinos’ seven-try performance.

“We defended our goalline pretty well throughout, but we - again - copped for a couple of kick tries.

“I thought we switched off on the second one, which was disappointing.

“They are a team who can create you problems with their offloading game and I didn’t think we did as good a job on that as last week.

“If we’re comparing both performances, we just weren’t as good in that area of the game.”

Agar added: “We created 14 line breaks and scored seven tries so the boys are a bit disappointed it was not a bigger gap at half-time.

“We felt at 24-6 we had squandered a number of chances, but we can’t be too disappointed and we got the job done.”

Stand-off Rob Lui was taken off late in the second half and had ice on both legs afterwards, but Agar said there was “no concern”.

He said: “He’s just at that stage of his career!

“He is a tough bloke. His knees are probably something at this stage we just have to manage and we had the opportunity to do that.”

Agar is expected to rotate his team for Wednesday’s visit of Catalans Dragons, which comes three days before a Cup semi-final against Wigan Warriors.

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Thank you

Laura Collins