Hull FC 22 Leeds Rhinos 40 - Winger Ash Handley’s hat-trick leaves Hull FC all at sea

Leeds began poorly, making a succession of errors and going 10-0 down, but - once they started to complete their sets - hit back strongly to lead 16-10 at the break.

Brad Dwyer’s introduction off the bench, along with Luke Gale’s class, was a major factor in Rhinos’ turnaround and the hooker again tormented Hull at the start of the second half as Leeds opened an 18-point gap.

At that stage it looked like Leeds were running away with it, but Hull stormed back to cut the gap to just six early in the final quarter.

It was suddenly game on, but Rhinos kept their composure and a couple more tries saw them to a convincing and deserved win.

It was a good game and a decent effort from both teams, particularly in the circumstances.

Hull, the ‘home’ side took the game at less than 24 hours’ notice after Castleford Tigers were unable to raise a team, while Rhinos looked weary after their Coral Challenge Cup semi-final win over Wigan only five days earlier.

Rhinos were close to their likely Wembley lineup - injuries, coronavirus and match review panel permitting - but the interesting selection was Jack Walker at full-back for only his second game since suffering a fractured foot in February.

Richie Myler switched to stand-off in place of Rob Lui who the club say has a “minor injury”.

Walker, having got 40 minutes under his belt against Catalans Dragons last week, started shakily, but then scored two tries in the first half and created another.

It was Myler’s first game in the halves this year and he wasn’t as effective as he has been at full-back. An early yellow card didn’t help.

The only other change to Leeds’ semi-final side was Bodene Thompson’s inclusion in place of Alex Mellor in the second-row.

Mellor took a bang to the ribs last week, but is expected to be for for Wembley when Thompson is cup-tied.

Early on, Leeds struggled to get any grip on the game and Hull took advantage.

Rhinos received three penalties in the opening 10 minutes and wasted all of them, through errors by Kruise Leeming, Myler and Walker.

After the third of those, Hull received a set restart and scored on their first incursion into Leeds’ territory when Jake Connor sent Mahe Fonua over.

Another Leeds error, a forward pass by Myler, led to a Hull counter when Connor sent Cameron Scott racing away.

Gale made the tackle, but Rhinos were caught offside and Myler was banished to the sin-bin.

In the resulting set, Leeming and Walker held up Ligi Sao over Leeds’ line, but then Andre Savelio crossed from a pass by Ben McNamara, son of Catalans coach Steve, who was making his first Super League start.

That was converted and Leeds trailed 10-0 at the end of the opening quarter, which would have been worse if Matt Prior and Walker hadn’t managed to hold Jordan Johnstone up. Rhinos scored when they finally managed to get to the end of a set, after 24 minutes.

It came from clever work by Rhyse Martin who stole the ball from Sneyd. Gale put in a kick to Leeds’ left, Handley batted the ball back and Walker gathered to go over.

Martin tagged on the extras and Leeds were level moments later.

Gale and Myler, who had just returned from the naughty step, worked the ball to Walker and he spun out a superb pass over his shoulder to Handley who finished equally well at the corner.

Leeds hit the front two minutes before the interval when Prior offloaded and Walker shrugged out of a tackle to touch down, Martin adding his second conversion.

Five minutes into the second half, a Gale kick was knocked on by Hull 10 metres out and in the resulting set Tom Holroyd - the substitute prop who had probably his best game for Leeds - carried the ball to the line before James Donaldson crashed over from close range off quick work by Dwyer out of acting-half.

In the set from the restart, Dwyer made a break and supplied Handley who could have used his support, but opted to go himself and rounded full-back Connor for a terrific touchdown.

Martin improved both and Leeds were cruising.

Walker, aided by Cameron Smith and Thompson, held Ligi Sao up over the line with 23 minutes to go, at the end of Hull’s first serious attack since Johnstone had gone close before Leeds got off the mark.

That was a warning. Moments later Connor landed a 40-20 and Josh Griffin crashed over for Hull’s third try, which Sneyd converted.

Then Sneyd landed a 40-20 and Jack Brown barged his way over for a converted try which cut the gap to just six points with 18 minutes left.

Liam Sutcliffe gave Rhinos breathing space soon afterwards when he touched down from a cross-kick by Gale, who was Leeds’ most influential player.

Martin added the goal and after Gale had been off-target with an attempted one-pointer, Handley intercepted Connor’s pass to race 70 metres for Leeds’ seventh try. Martin’s sixth goal completed the scoring. The penalty count finished five-three in Rhinos’ favour (three-two to Leeds in the first half).

Hull received five set restarts to Rhinos’ two, which included the only one of the second half.

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Laura Collins