Leeds Rhinos vs Hull FC Preview

 Leeds will be looking to make it two wins in a row and win their first home game of the season when they return to Headingley Stadium on Thursday night. They face a Hull FC team that have had a mixed start to the 2022 season and are coming off a 33-26 loss to Castleford Tigers in round 4. Leeds will be without key players Kruise Leeming and Harry Newman while Hull coach Brett Hodgson faces even bigger selection issues with 10 first team players unavailable through injury and suspension. This includes former Leeds Rhinos player Luke Gale who misses out on his first opportunity to return to his former club.

 

Hull FC have won two from four games to start the 2022 season and are yet to win two games in a row. When they have been successful, against Wakefield and Salford, they have played free flowing attacking rugby and Brett Hodgson has clearly given license for his team to attack anywhere on the pitch. This was shown no better than in their 48-16 demolition of the Red Devils. In this game their star player Jake Connor was influential and Connor's presence alone draws in defenders which frees up space for him to find attackers in space with perfectly timed passes, leading to him being able to provide a number of assist as well as crossing for a try of his own. Their opening round victory, a 16-12 win against Wakefield, was a more hard fought affair and it was clear that their new signings were still getting used to the new combinations.

 

On the flipside, when Hull have been beaten they have leaked points and looked particularly vulnerable to attack on the edge of their defense. In their round 2 loss, like every team who have played them this season, Hull were steamrolled 38-6 by a St Helens team that appear imperious in their current form. Hindered by a red card for halfback Luke Gale, St Helens were able to run structured plays that time after time created space for their wingers to dive in at the corner unaided. In their most recent loss last weekend against Castleford, Hull  gifted tries to the opposition with a number of errors that started from the first play of the game when a Hull forward spilled a ball from kick off straight in to the hands of Daniel Smith to score. When they were not making errors Hull did show signs of the attack that led them to their previous two wins and once again Jake Connor was the key creative force for the Black and Whites.

 

Looking back at the previous season Leeds and Hull were involved in three hard fought fixtures where either result was possible for long periods of the matches. In the end Leeds edged the series 2-1 including a nail biting golden point victory at magic weekend. What typified all three matches was that neither team found it difficult to create chances and both teams were prepared to play an attacking brand of rugby. In Hull's round 7 18-12 victory at Headingley both Marc Sneyd and Jake Connor were excellent. Sneyd in particular used his famed kicking game to win territory for Hull as well as creating tries with dangerous kicks to the corner. Leeds would have felt hard done on the day as they came close several times to scoring the tries to overcome the six point deficit in the game. 

 

After a 22-12 reverse for the Rhinos at the MKM stadium the headline fixture was Leeds's come from behind victory in Newcastle. After being behind for long periods of the second half, a try from Jack Broadbent brought Leeds level before the usually metronomic Rhyse Martin missed an easy kick for the win. Luckily for the Rhinos Hull missed their effort at a drop goal before Kruise Leeming completed the comeback knocking a drop goal over from in front of the posts.

 

As mentioned in the introduction, Brett Hodgson is already down on numbers at such an early stage of the season with 10 first team players unavailable to him. These include, in Luke Gale and Josh Reynolds, both of Hull’s first choice halfbacks meaning it is likely young Ben Mcnamara will play alongside Jake Connor who will be the key man for Hull. Although Hodgson is only able to name an inexperienced team, they aren’t lacking in quality. In particular they boast a number of exciting young forwards including Brad Fash and also Joe Cator who returns to a squad for the first time since against Hull KR last August.

 

Leeds coach Richard Agar isn’t without his own selection problems as he will be missing two key men from his team in Kruise Leeming and Harry Newman. Leeming picked up a one match ban for his high shot on Wakefield halfback Harry Bowes and all Leeds fans worst fears were confirmed when Harry Newman’s injury was confirmed to be a hamstring problem. This more than likely will see the return of Tom Briscoe to the centres and also see a first start of the season for Brad Dwyer.  The squad will be boosted by the return of Alex Mellor and James Donaldson who will both be in with a shout of securing one of the four bench spots as it is unlikely Morgan Gannon will lose his starting spots after such an impressive start to the season.

 

Looking ahead to what we can expect to see on Thursday night, both teams have shown they promise in both defence and attack however neither team have been able to display either facet for a full 80 minutes. This bodes well for the neutral as it is likely to mean that they will be treated to a high scoring game.

 

With Reynolds and Gale missing, Jake Connor will be the main creative force for Hull and this means that the Leeds defence should be ready to expect the unexpected. As well as possessing a deadly miss pass and being a strong ball carrier, he also has a wicked short kicking game that has caught many super league defences on their heels. As this is the case, the Leeds defence should look to shut him down and not allow him the freedom of time to attack the defensive line.  Connor is however, also a player who is easily riled up and there is a chance he may pick up a card if he is consistently targeted in both defence and attack.

 

For Leeds to be successful in this game they should attack it in the same way they did against Wakefield as, much like when they faced Wakefield, they will be facing a back line that is lacking in experienced players. As such, they may well be inclined to borrow the tactic of attacking from deep that Hull utilise so well at times. Leeds will also have the benefit of having their two starting halfbacks available and being able to provide structure to the attack on both sides of the park.

 

My prediction is that Leeds will carry on the form that saw them beat Wakefield and come out victorious in a high scoring game. The final score will be 32-22 in favour of the team in blue and amber.

 

Thank you for reading and most importantly remember all Leeds aren’t we.