A difficult night at Headingley Stadium saw Leeds Rhinos suffer a 31-8 defeat at the hands of Hull FC.

Fresh from signing his new contract extension, Morgan Gannon started in the second row for Richard Agar, while fellow youngster Corey Johnson got his first start of the season in place of the banned Kruise Leeming. Ash Handley took up the role of captain for the match in Leeming’s absence too, plus Zane Tetevano made his 150th career appearance.

Inside the opening ten minutes, both sides were reduced to twelve players as Kane Evans and Matt Prior were both sin binned by referee Liam Moore for dangerous contact and a dangerous high tackle. It was the visitors that adapted the best as they had the best scoring chances; Vulikijapani squandering a great opportunity thanks to good defence from Liam Sutcliffe.

The floodgates opened on Prior’s return to the field as Jake Connor scored the first of his two tries. Ben McNamara and Josh Griffin were both halted short of the line but then on the fifth tackle, full back Connor shaped to kick over the top but instead fended off Zane Tetevano and strode into the try area.

The Rhinos tried to fight back as Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer almost put Rhyse Martin through a big hole, only for Brad Dwyer to be tackled on the fifth, but limited opportunities for the home side were punished by the Airlie Birds; Adam Swift taking a long pass from Connor over the top to score in the corner.

Handley had the best chance of scoring points for Leeds in the closing stages, but referee Moore pulled the play back for a forward pass in the buildup. Connor once again made his mark to put Hull up by three tries at the break as the full back slipped through the Rhinos defence to grab his second. McNamara converted all three tries to make the half time score 18-0.

The second half started in controversy as the Rhinos looked to start the new 40 minutes with a spring in their step. Swift had done well to stop Handley from taking in a raking kick by Sezer before Leeds’ opposite winger David Fusitu’a looked to have scored in spectacular fashion in the corner. The decision was handed up to the video referee, who judged that the ball had been grounded on the dead ball line and he reversed the on field decision of try.

Hull reacted instantly as Prior was penalised for dangerous contact. As the black and whites closed in on the try line, Andre Savelio was posted through a gap by Joe Lovodua to power his way to the try line. Although McNamara missed the conversion attempt, shortly after, a break away from Adam Swift and penalty against Rhyse Martin saw the young half back step up and add a penalty goal to make the score 24-0.

Following a break by Vulikijapani, a short kick on the fifth tackle by Brad Fash saw Lovodua go from try creator to try scorer before Connor added a drop goal for good measure to make sure Hull were taking away the two league points.

A late fightback saw Leeds get points on the board before the final hooter. First Tom Briscoe had Sezer to thank as the half back threw a perfect ball over the heads of Griffin and Vulikijapani for the ex-Hull winger to score. Then Liam Sutcliffe rounded off the proceedings as Sezer and Walker combined to release the centre for an easy finish in the corner. Martin was unlucky not to convert both tries, making the final score 31-8 in favour of Hull.