Lots of 4s, one 6 in Peter Smith's Leeds Rhinos player ratings from 18-10 humiliation at Hull FC

New sporting director Ian Blease begins work on Monday and he has some huge issues to deal with after Leeds Rhinos hit an embarrassing new low in an 18-10 loss at Hull FC this afternoon.

Rhinos suffer a defeat like this most seasons. Last year they lost to the bottom two of Castleford Tigers and Wakefield Trinity in successive weeks and they’ve been beaten by London Broncos in each of their past two relegation campaigns. This was debacle to match any of those and Hull won more convincingly than the final scoreline suggests.

Hull are getting better, but they had lost 13 of their previous 14 competitive games this season and weren’t particularly good. So there’s no way to sugar coat it; it was an awful result and the top-six, which should be the absolute minimum requirement for a club like Leeds, looks a long, long way off.

What makes it worse is this was Leeds’ strongest 17 for a while. They lined up from one-seven and only three of the starting 13 weren’t in their squad number position. But they went in at the break 12-0 down and that was the seventh time Rhinos have failed to score in a half of rugby this season.

Rhinos’ last tackle options were poor verging on non-existant, they made their usual high tally of errors and conceded some ridiculous penalties. In wet conditions, even at 0-0 before any scoreboard pressure, they tried to offload at every opportunity and didn’t play with their heads.

It was Rhinos’ first game since Rob Burrow’s death 13 days earlier and there were some moving moments as both sets of players and fans paid tribute before kick-off. However, by the second half Leeds’ large travelling support were calling for coach Rohan Smith to be sacked.

Rhinos had a huge escape inside four minutes when Jordan Lane forced his way over their line, but knocked on. Referee Liam Moore said no try and Aaron Moore - his brother who was on video duty - agreed. It was a similar story soon afterwards when Brodie Croft regathered from his own high kick to touch down, but the officials ruled it had been knocked on by David Fusitu’a first, as he competed in the air with Lewis Martin.

Fusitu’a did well in his second game of the season – following two knee injuries – and was Rhinos’ only positive from a dire 80 minutes, There were chances at both ends after that no-try, but the first score didn’t come until three minutes before the break when Lewis Martin finished well from Jake Trueman’s pass. Ben Reynolds added a touchline goal to make it 6-0, then in the next set Sam Lisone was penalised for a high shot and Hull scored again as a result.

Rhinos’ defence completely clocked off in front of the posts and Denive Balmforth burrowed through to give Reynolds the simplest of conversions. Things had rapidly gone pear shaped and were about to get worse. Just five minutes after the interval Momirovski - who wasn’t anywhere near the ball - was penalised for dissent and in the resulting set Cam Scott went over for a converted try to make it 18-0, a deficit Leeds never threatened to overturn.

That was it for Hull’s scoring, all 18 points coming in eight minutes either side of the break. There’s no shortage of competition, but that lspell must be up there among the most embarrassing spells passages in Leeds’ recent history. Ash Handley pulled four points back with 24 minutes left when he touched down from Croft’s grubber and the winger’s pass was deflected to Harry Newman for a consolation score late on, which Rhyse Martin improved. That came against 12 men with Tom Briscoe in the sin-bin for a professional foul. The penalty count was seven-six in Hull’s favour.

Hull FC: Moy, Briscoe, Tuimavave, Sutcliffe, L Martin, Trueman, Reynolds, Ese’ese, M Smith, Sao, Lane, Scott, Fash. Subs Ashworth, Balmforth, Aydin, Chan.

Leeds Rhinos: Miller, Fusitu’a, Momirovski, Newman, Handley, Croft, Frawley, Oledzki, O’Connor, Goudemand, McDonnell, Martin, C Smith. Subs Holroyd, Lisone, Sangare, Johnson.

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan). Attendance: 12,166.

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