Ryan Hall, the best player on the pitch, on the charge for Leeds Rhinos during their victory over Hull. Photograph: John Clifton/Action ImagesLeeds ended a three-match losing run with a dour victory that could nonetheless mark a significant turning point in a difficult first season for their coach Brian McDermott. As on so many occasions in the past, the captain Kevin Sinfield proved the key figure, setting up a try in each half in addition to kicking four goals from as many attempts.
Sinfield would be the first to admit this was not a vintage personal or collective performance. But to nil an opposition team for the first time since August 2009 marked a major improvement in the defence that had been penetrated so easily by the Catalan Dragons in a 38-18 defeat in Perpignan last Sunday.
That might have had something to do with the steady rain, and also a desperately disappointing effort by a Hull team who had won four of their previous five fixtures. But Leeds will take anything they can get for the moment, especially after climbing two places in the table to discover that the view from sixth is much better than that from eighth, whereas Hull are now clinging to their play-off place.
They must also be confident of claiming another victory over Hull when the teams meet again in a Challenge Cup quarter final at the KC Stadium next Sunday, unless this was a cunning ruse by the black-and-whites to keep their powder dry.
The menacing clouds that hung over Headingley summed up the prevailing mood. The Leeds supporters are brooding, wondering how a team who were champions in three consecutive seasons from 2007-09 have come to be languishing so low in the table. McDermott, the former Bradford prop who took over as coach at the start of the season, has been shouldering most of the blame.
He had lost two senior players, Brent Webb and Kylie Leuluai, with injuries sustained in Perpignan. Hull had their Australian captain, Craig Fitzgibbon, returning after three matches out with a shoulder problem. The omens for Leeds were not promising.
Yet it was Fitzgibbon, listed unusually in the prop position, who gifted the Rhinos the position to open the scoring, Sinfield punishing his rare handling error by floating a pass to the left wing that allowed Ryan Hall to slide in at the corner. Sinfield converted from wide out, but his kicking game in general play was poor, denying Leeds the chance to build pressure.
The game went 55 minutes without any further score. Leeds had plenty of chances, but with each one they fluffed the home fears grew that Hull would make them pay. However, this Hull performance did not deserve that level of respect, and instead a rare rhyming penalty as Weller Hauraki was tackled high by Hame Lauaki allowed Sinfield to extend the lead to 8-0. An accurate kick then laid on a try for Ben Jones-Bishop, and Danny McGuire completed a misleadingly comfortable margin when he rounded off a long-range left wing break instigated by Hall, the best player on the pitch by a distance. The relief was tangible.
In the night's other games, Leon Pryce made a successful comeback from injury as St Helens climbed to third by beating the Catalans 40-18, and Gareth Hock scored a hat-trick in his fourth appearance since returning from a two-year drug ban as Wigan beat Wakefield 48-6 to move three points clear at the top.
Leeds Rhinos Jones-Bishop; Hardaker, Delaney, Senior, Hall; Sinfield (capt), McGuire; Bailey, Buderus, Peacock, Hauraki, Jones-Buchanan, Clarkson. Interchange Burrow, Lauitiiti, Kirke, Pitts.
Hull FC Phelps; Whiting, Turner, Yeaman, Briscoe; Horne, Obst; O'Meley, Houghton, Fitzgibbon (capt), Manu, Tickle, Westerman. Interchange Radford, Washbrook, Lauaki, Moa.
Referee R Silverwood (Mirfield).
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