Leeds’ grab fourth, Hull rivals set for sudden-death play-off
Leeds Rhinos sealed fourth place in the Super League with a spirited second-half comeback to beat 12-man Hull FC 18-14 at the KC Stadium.
At half-time the current Super League champions looked destined to miss out on a top-four spot as they looked down and out against a relentless Hull side, who raced to a 12-0 lead despite being down to 12-men from the third minute.
Lee Radford was the man to see red, after he decided to use Leeds’ Ryan Bailey’s head as a punching bag following a high-tackle from the prop. Radford claimed he had initially been elbowed by Bailey, but referee Ian Smith took no action against the Rhinos player, who departed to the blood-bin with a cut round his right eye, which required four stitches.
Miraculously, Hull managed to dominate the remainder of the half, running in two brilliantly worked tries from Tom Briscoe and Danny Washbrook. But Leeds coach Brian McClennan read the riot act at half time as Leeds came out a totally different animal in the second, and Danny Maguire took centre stage. The in-form stand-off played like a man possessed, running over to score twice and making countless breaks over the gain-line. Scott Donald grabbed the other score for the visitors following more good work from Maguire.
The fourth-placed Rhinos now head to the JW Stadium for Sunday's play-off clash against league shield winners Wigan Warriors, while Hull’s defeat dropped them down to sixth as Huddersfield won 26-12 at Catalans Dragons on Sunday. That results sets up a mouth-watering play-off match with rivals Hull KR, who finished seventh, next Saturday.
The improvement to fifth place for Huddersfield gives them a huge advantage of qualifying through the preliminary round as they face Crusaders, who finished nine points adrift of the Giants in the table but sneaked into eighth thanks to a 32-24 win over Hull KR.
Crusaders coach Brian Noble grabbed most of the plaudits for the Crusaders qualification to the play-offs in only their second season in Super League. Noble, who took Bradford to five consecutive Grand Final appearances before moving to Wigan in 2006, told the club’s official website: "I believe you can do anything from anywhere.
"Over the last 10 or 11 years, if you play well on the day, you win. It is cup football from now on. In essence, we had our first warm-up game because it was trapdoor football for us. If we didn't win on Saturday, we were out."
Roll on next weekend.
Hull FC in trouble after fan invades pitch and tackles player
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