Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur explains penalty policy in win v Hull FC, hails James Bentley, Brodie Croft

Rhinos scored 10 tries and 14 goals, with Rhyse Martin landing 13 from as many attempts in his final home appearance, equalling the club record for successful kicks in a Betfred Super League game. The final conversion was taken by James Donaldson, also in his final match at AMT Headingley as a Leeds player.

Rhinos turned down two points from several kickable penalties in their previous game at London Broncos and almost paid the price before sneaking a win in extra-time. They opened the scoring with an early penalty against Hull and also took the two to make it 40-0, 54-6 and 62-6. Arthur said: “We talked about it as a group, especially at the start of the game.

“When you’re up by 30 or 40 you don’t need to take the two, but it allowed me to give some of the guys out there a bit of a rest, to go again. Our priority was making sure we keep them fit, fresh and healthy for next week. Taking the two allowed us to do that; reset, calm down, build our game again.”

Rhinos, who visit leaders Wigan Warriors on Friday, were more disciplined, conceding only two penalties, compared with eight at London. Arthur stressed: “We can blame everyone else for the penalties, but at the end of the day we are in control of them. We reviewed that last week and we can’t be pointing fingers at anyone else. We have to wear that ourselves and our discipline wasn’t good enough last week.”

While winger Alfie Edgell stole the show with four tries, most created by Brodie Croft who crossed twice, there was also an impressive effort from James Bentley as he bagged a brace. Bentley has played as a substitute prop in seven successive games after returning from a long concussion layoff.

The two tries against Hull were his first since he touched down in a home win over Warrington Wolves 13 months ago and Arthur said: He is going good; he is a work in progress, he is a bit rough around the edges at times, but he is all effort.

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“He is tough and he just wants to win. He is taking it all on board; he provides that bit of fast feet and footwork through the middle and he’s a real effort-based player.”

Of Croft, the coach noted: “He was very good. His running game is his real speciality and he ran really well, but I feel like [scrum-half] Matt Frawley does a really good job for him because he goes about his business, gets the team around the field, stays calm and in control and allows Brodie and Lachie Miller to run off the back of it. The spine connected really well, I thought.”

Arthur cleared his players of blame for Hull’s lone try and was delighted to see them hold up Yusuf Aydin over the line in the final moments. “That’s the thing that really pleased me,” he said.

“It started with our defence. We didn’t have to do a lot of it, but it started with our defence and finished with our defence.”