Hull 34-10 Leeds: Hosts' revival continues in Rhinos victory
Last Updated: 09/03/19 1:10pm
Hull's revival continued as they put beleaguered Leeds to the sword in a 34-10 win to earn their first victory at the KCOM Stadium since last June.
The Black and Whites have seen their form turn around after picking up away wins against Wigan and Huddersfield to bring an end to their 13-game losing run in Super League.
Hull had another monkey to get off their back and they did it in style although such a comprehensive victory did not look on the cards early on.
Centre Harry Newman opened the scoring with his first try for Leeds and Hull old boy Tom Briscoe made it a dream start for the Rhinos when he went over in the corner.
But Hull ruthlessly exposed the visitors' defence as they ran in five tries in little over 15 minutes through Ratu Naulago, Masi Matongo, Marc Sneyd, Jamie Shaul and Albert Kelly.
Dean Hadley scored the only try of an uneventful second half with the points already in the bag for Hull.
Newman went over from dummy half to give the Rhinos an early lead.
He then turned provider to put Briscoe over and at 10-0 after 10 minutes it appeared Leeds were well on their way.
Newman and Briscoe somehow held Josh Griffin up over the line but the Rhinos' defence soon buckled as the rampant Black and Whites got their tails up.
Kelly got Hull going with a brilliant last-tackle pass that took Ash Handley out of the game and put Naulago over in the corner for his fourth try in three appearances.
Sneyd converted from the touchline and then sent Matongo through a huge hole close to the line to wipe out Leeds' advantage.
All of a sudden Hull were full of confidence and Sneyd got in on the act after backing up the rampaging Mark Minichiello to score under the posts with Leeds' edge defence in disarray.
Shaul evaded Jack Walker's tackle to extend the Airlie Birds' lead and the game was as good as over when Kelly stepped back inside to touch down, with Sneyd's fifth goal making it 30-10.
Brad Singleton went close just before half-time as the Rhinos finally got their hands on the ball and they made a strong start to the second period with Furner's team-talk still ringing in their ears.
But there was to be no comeback for Leeds as Hadley scored a scrappy try to end the match as a contest.