Keith Senior inspires Rhinos to find their feet again on home turf

Leeds Rhinos, after three consecutive defeats at Headingley Carnegie and in danger of suffering their worst losing sequence there since 1985, responded with their first home win for two months last night to move back to within two points of St Helens and a point of Hull Kingston Rovers at the top of the engage Super League.
Hull’s hopes of exploiting any Leeds nerves were comprehensively dashed by the champions, who produced their biggest win of the year. As well as failing to handle the Rhinos’ superior pace, their defence was unpicked at the fringes in succumbing to eight tries, two of them by Keith Senior — the veteran centre’s 151st and 152nd on his 300th Leeds appearance.
Although competitive in the first half, Hull fell away badly in a seventh defeat that leaves them struggling to keep a toehold in the top eight. Lee Smith opened Leeds’s account with the first of his two tries, to which Richard Whiting swiftly replied by pocketing Lee Radford’s kick to the corner.
Senior re-established the home team’s lead and Brent Webb stretched the advantage with a wonderful piece of athleticism to shrug off Chris Thorman and catch Danny McGuire’s chip at full stretch and touch down. Kirk Yeaman did equally well to ground Richard Horne’s grubber for Hull’s second try, but they let their concentration slip as half-time sounded in allowing Carl Ablett to score. Sam Moa’s knock-on after the resumption resulted in Smith’s second try from a scrum on halfway. Hull’s vulnerability from the set-piece was again exposed by Senior’s blind-side run, before McGuire put Senior into a yawning gap and Kevin Sinfield completed the rout.
- Scorers: Leeds Rhinos: Tries: Smith 2, Senior 2, Webb, Ablett, Hall, Sinfield. Goals: Sinfield 7. Hull: Tries: Whiting, Yeaman, Radford. Goals: Tickle 2.
Leeds Rhinos: B Webb; S Donald, L Smith, K Senior, R Hall; K Sinfield, D McGuire; K Leuluai, D Buderus, J Peacock, J Jones-Buchanan, I Kirke, C Ablett. Interchange: R Bailey, A Lauitiiti, M Diskin, L Burgess.
Hull: M Tony; M Calderwood, R Whiting, K Yeaman, G Raynor; R Horne, C Thorman; E Dowes, S Berrigan, J Thackray, M Burnett, D Tickle, L Radford. Interchange: P King, D Houghton, T Lee, S Moa.
Referee: T Alibert.
Source:The times