Leeds Rhinos' Ash Handley looking to continue scoring run at Wembley

The in-form winger makes his first appearance in a major final for hometown Leeds when they face Salford Red Devils at Wembley on Saturday.

To help them get there, he scored two tries in the semi-final win over Wigan Warriors having also crossed in the quarter-final victory over Hull FC.

Handley leads Super League's scoring charts with a dozen tries so far, one ahead of Wigan Warriors wideman Tom Davies, so has 15 tries in total this term.

The 24-year-old earned England Nines recognition last autumn and was also a late call-up for Great Britain but believes he has hit even greater form this time.

“I had a good season last year as well but it’s better now that the team’s in a better position,” said Handley, who scored a hat-trick in last week’s win over Hull FC.

“I ended the season well last year and I’m pleased that I’ve been able to carry that on. I feel like I have done

“It is nice (leading try-scorers chart). Obviously I just got pipped by one at the end last season so I want to keep knocking on the door and hopefully I can be top when this season has finished, too.

“And I am really looking forward to Saturday. I can’t wait.

“It’s probably going to be the biggest game of my career so far. I know there’ll be no fans there at Wembley but the supporters will be right there with us watching from home.”

Handley scored 22 tries in 28 games last term, just one behind St Helens and England winger Tommy Makinson.

This time around he is also challenging when it comes to clean breaks, his 17 raids being only one adrift of the leader - Wigan’s elusive Australian full-back Bevan French.

With such attacking threat, Handley is sure to be one of Leeds’ biggest strike weapons as they seek to lift the Cup for the first time since 2015.

Salford are not short of quality in that department, though, with former Kiwi winger Krisnan Inu in fine form and ex-Rhinos and England centre Kallum Watkins also now adding to their arsenal.

“It’s great to see Kal back playing,” said Handley, about his former Leeds captain who joined Gold Coast Titans last June but has now arrived at Salford after a short-lived, gameless spell at Toronto Wolfpack.

“Obviously he went down to Australia. It didn’t quite work out but I’m glad to see him back in the game and doing well.

“He’s playing really well as well. I’m looking forward to challenging myself up against him.

“He’s obviously an international class player and I can’t wait to see him as well as not see him for a while. That will be good.

“And Inu is a good player who is playing really well at the minute.

“He’s a bit of a go-to player for them and someone we will have to handle.”

Meanwhile, Handley refuses to be concerned by his lack of recognition at international level since last autumn.

When injuries hit, he was flown over to Papua New Guinea for the last Test of the tour only for Wayne Bennett to controversially pick Warrington Wolves half-back Blake Austin on the win instead.

Then, when Shaun Wane replaced Bennett as England coach in February, he not only overlooked Handley in his group of players being in contention for the Ashes but he was also left out of the second string England Knights programme.

Since then, there has been no doubt he has proved his worth on the field but Handley insisted: “I don’t really think about that too much.

“I can only control what I do. I can’t control things like that that happen. I just use it as energy to play well and focus on what I can control.

“I’ll let my performances do the talking. I don’t need to talk to anyone about what happened over there.

“I’ll let people know who I am by how I play.”

Salford, of course, are led by Ian Watson, who was assistant coach on that Lions tour.

“He’s done a great job at Salford,” said Handley.

“I didn’t spend that much time with him as I was only there a couple of days while they were training (in PNG) so I didn’t get to be coached much by him.

“But you can see he has a really good plan and he coaches those Salford boys really well so it’s going to be a tough task at the weekend.”