Hull (12) 30
Tries: Berrigan, Tickle, Raynor, Yeaman, Burnett Goals: Tickle (5)

Leeds (30) 43
Tries: Hall (2), Senior, Donald, Sinfield, Gibson, Smith Goals: Sinfield (7) Drop-goals Burrow

Senior marked his career milestone with yet another try

Keith Senior capped his 500th career match by scoring his 230th try as Leeds withstood a tremendous Hull fightback.

Ryan Hall scored two early tries before Shaun Berrigan hit back for Hull but Senior, Scott Donald and Kevin Sinfield then went over as Leeds dominated.

Danny Tickle's try gave Hull hope and after Ashley Gibson's try they hit back through Gareth Raynor, Kirk Yeaman and Mike Burnett to cut the gap to seven.

But Lee Smith finally sealed Leeds' victory with a late try.

The victory means Leeds close to within two points of league leaders St Helen's, who suffered a shock loss to Salford on Friday.

But the reigning champions were made to work hard before securing their fourth straight win as Hull produced a spirited display, particularly in the second half.

Early on, it had seemed Leeds would ease past their opponents, with England winger Hall scoring twice in the first 10 minutes.

There appeared to be a forward pass in the build-up to his first try, but his second was made by a super 40-20 kick from Sinfield before man-of-the-moment Senior provided the final pass.

606: DEBATE For the second week in a row, Rhinos have scored a try from a forward pass Northern1964

Hull briefly fought back, with Berrigan powering over while Tickle added the goal to extend his run of being the only player in the competition to score in every game this season.

Tickle went on to add a try and a goal before the break after some good work from Jodie Broughton, and Willie Manu had one chalked off by the video referee but not before Leeds had posted another three scores.

Senior was the first to go over with a typically strong finish, Scott Donald touched down from Ashley Gibson's pass and Sinfield went in for a deserved score after Rob Burrow's break.

Gibson went over in the corner as Leeds continued their dominance after the break, before Hull's fightback began.

Tries from Raynor and Yeaman ate into Leeds' advantage before Burrow's drop-goal extended their lead to three scores.

Burnett's try showed Hull were not beaten, but when Smith went over under the posts and Sinfield's goal kept up his 100% record for the day, the match was over.

Hull coach Richard Agar:

"We can take plenty out of it. We spoke about passion and commitment and certainly spoke about emotion at half time and we saw plenty of it in the second half.

"Their heads could have gone down after the first 15 minutes. We hung in there fighting.

"I'm not taking anything away from Leeds because they're a great side and in good form but I think a couple of big things didn't go our way."

Leeds coach Brian McClennan:

"I was pretty happy with that, we were pretty comfortable.

"I knew once we got the ball we'd do something with it and we did. Smithy got a nice try off Ali (Lauitiiti) and Rob was smart too at banging over the drop goal so that it put us 13 ahead. It was pretty smart play by Rob.

"It was hot out there and I thought both teams really attacked and really put on some good plays. We know we can defend a lot better than that but we're still happy to get the two points."

Hull: R. Horne, Raynor, G. Horne, Yeaman, Broughton, Thorman, Berrigan, Thackray, Lee, King, Tickle, Manu, Radford.
Replacements: Houghton, Whiting, Burnett, Moa.

Leeds: Smith, Donald, Gibson, Senior, Hall, Sinfield, Burrow, Leuluai, Buderus, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Worrall, Ablett.
Replacements: Diskin, Ratu, Lauitiiti, Burgess.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham)

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version