 Cooke had a bad night with his kicking, but Hull did enough to win |
Hull 23 (18)
Tries: Raynor 2, Domic, Whiting 2
Goal: P Cooke
Drop: P Cooke
Leeds 16 (6)
Tries: Senior, Donald, Jones-Buchanan
Goals: Sinfield 2
Hull moved up to second place in Super League after condemning Leeds to their fourth straight defeat.
The home side dominated early on and Gareth Raynor (twice), Sid Domic and Richard Whiting put Hull 18-6 ahead.
Paul Cooke missed all the conversions and Leeds got themselves back in the game through a Scott Donald try.
Leeds had two tries disallowed after the break before Whiting added another and although Jamie Jones-Buchanan crossed for the Rhinos, Hull hung on.
The home side, who had never beaten Leeds at the KC before, were hampered by Cooke's wayward goal-kicking display although the stand-off does have the excuse of returning after surgery to remove kidney stones.
But Hull had enough attacking verve to make the missed kicks at goal academic as they swept to their 14th win in 15 games.
Leeds, who only had four days of rest after their Challenge Cup semi-final defeat, gave debuts to centre Clinton Toopi and ex-Hull prop Jamie Thackray but the newcomers could not help end their poor run.
Raynor's first try was a simple run-in after an accurate Cooke pass, while his second was a more opportunistic effort after the Leeds defence failed to deal with Shayne McMenemy's kick.
Centre Keith Senior crossed for Leeds, but Hull edged further ahead before the break as Domic, benefiting from Richard Horne's clever pass, and Whiting both added tries.
Donald's try after the restart saw Leeds move within range, but their momentum was badly hit by two disallowed tries with Ali Lauitiiti and Jones-Buchanan the unlucky players.
Whiting rubbed salt into Leeds' wounds with his second despite appearing to be offside when setting off in pursuit of Horne's kick.
Cooke missed another conversion, but made amends with a 67th-minute drop goal to take Hull 23-10 ahead.
Jones-Buchanan did get on the scoreboard, crossing under the posts but Leeds had left themselves too much to do. The last significant action was a mass brawl in the final minute, sparked by Thackray.
Hull coach Peter Sharp:
"I am absolutely delighted with the team. It was a great victory for us and we played well. It was important for us to go out and play some football and I thought we did that. "We defended very well too. It was a pretty comprehensive performance in the first half, especially considering we lost Chris Chester to a snapped ankle ligament.
"Leeds are always a danger and maybe if we had have kicked a few more goals we might have put them to bed earlier."
Leeds boss Tony Smith:
"I thought it was a much-improved effort overall from last week against Huddersfield. "We leaked too many points in the first-half, but we have to keep working hard. We are lacking a bit of confidence here and there.
"We worked hard this week and we will be stepping it up again this week. We will keep working hard but well done to Hull."
Hull: Tony, Blacklock, Whiting, Domic, Raynor, Cooke, R Horne, Dowes, Swain, Carvell, Radford, Chester, Washbrook.
Replacements: King, Briscoe, McMenemy, G Horne.
Leeds: Smith, Donald, Toopi, Senior, Gibson, Sinfield, Burrow, Jones-Buchanan, Diskin, Bailey, Walker, Peacock, Ellis.
Replacements: Millard, Kirke, Thackray, Lauitiiti.
Referee: P Bentham (Warrington)
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