Despite a late try from Tom Briscoe, it was too little too late for Leeds Rhinos as they were defeated by Hull FC 18-12 in front of 4000 fans at Emerald Headingley.

The Rhinos welcomed back fans for the first time in 444 days and Emerald Headingley was rocking from kick off. On the team sheets, Leeds named Richie Myler and Zane Tetevano following their match bans and both players were instantly included in Richard Agar’s starting team, coming in for Jarrod O’Connor and Jack Broadbent. Kruise Leeming started at hooker in his 150th career appearance and James Donaldson came back after injury.

The South Stand were in full voice and the Rhinos rose to the chants from the South Stand, meeting Hull’s repeat sets from kick off with vigorous defence to keep the black and whites away. Leeds’ hard work earned them the first points of the game courtesy of Liam Sutcliffe inside of ten minutes. After Konrad Hurrell was judged to have had the ball stripped by Hull on the halfway line, and Luke Gale’s kick for touch took the Rhinos closer to the try line, off the back of repeat sets, Leeming and Gale spun the ball wide and Sutcliffe managed to break through the tackle of Josh Griffin and Sneyd to get the ball down. Martin added the conversion.

Leeds tried to come forward again thanks to a Gale fifth tackle kick that sat up nicely in the in goal area and forced Hull drop the ball out, but during the next set, Alex Mellor knock on in the tackle. Hull then came down the other end of the field, Danny Houghton setting up the visitors close to the Leeds line with a clean break round the back of the Rhinos markers, and moving the ball left Marc Sneyd’s pass over the top found Swift in plenty of space to score. Sneyd converted to level the scores.

Leeds nudged themselves back ahead following the Swift score; Martin kicking a successful penalty goal following an offside call against the visitors. Mellor almost had a chance to add another six points to the Rhinos score too, the second rower grounding the ball under the posts from a Gale kick, but as the video referee James Child took a look he spotted a knock on and gave the decision the other way.

For the remainder of the half, Hull were in full control, adding two further tries before the break. Firstly, Swift grabbed his second try of the game as Konrad Hurrell mistimed his tackle on Josh Griffin and the Hull centre broke away, before passing for Swift to touch down. Hurrell was also at fault for Hull’s third try. After Myler had been judged to have been tackled in the in-goal area and Leeds were forced to drop out, Jake Connor played a flat pass for Griffin, who evaded the challenge of Hurrell to touch down for his 100th career try. Sneyd kicked both goals to send Brett Hodgson’s side into the break with a ten point advantage.

During the second half, Leeds dominated in possession and had the most chances to score but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard.

Most of the Rhinos’ chances came within the last twenty minutes as the home side was denied twice by the video referee. Tom Briscoe looked all but certain to score as he broke through the line and rolled his way to the in goal area, only to be held up by Carlos Tuimavave, After a scuffle between both sets of players that had to be broken up by the referees, Leeds attacked the line again from a Gale kick and Myler managed to get his hands to the ball and touch down. When the decision was handed up to the video referee, Child spotted a knock on by Sutcliffe, turning the ball back in favour of Hull.

With three minutes left, Briscoe finally made the breakthrough for Leeds to set up in intense finish. As Griffin had been taken into touch by Luke Briscoe and Hurrell, the Rhinos went straight down the other end of the field on the offensive. Gale took the ball at the line with intent before passing wide to put Dwyer, who’s cutout ball found Briscoe to score in the corner.

Martin missed the conversion to keep the game within six points but in the closing moments, Martin’s grubber kick through the Hull line was taken by Connor, who kicked the ball into the stands, ending the game at 18-12 in favour of the visitors.