Hull FC 24 Leeds Rhinos 48: Burrow's fighting spirit puts Rhinos in control

It is normally his side who are the target of such feats come Carnegie Challenge Cup weekend but the impish scrum-half decided he wanted to see how it all felt on Saturday. So he picked his own monster to fell.

After Hull's Tongan Epalahame Lauaki took a swipe at the smallest player on the field, Burrow re-acted with a flurry of impressively swift if off-target punches at the burly forward.

It all looked rather comical as the huge presence of Lauaki simply outstretched his arm and kept the furious Burrow at bay like a big, older brother might do when a younger sibling gets riled.

But you had to admire the Leeds player's courage. If more Hull players had such guts they might have reached the fifth round.

Instead, too many disappeared allowing a Leeds side whose confidence is increasing every week to exert their influence and seize control of a tie which

had initially looked set to be a classic.

The game, played 100 years to the weekend after the club's first Challenge Cup meeting, started in a bright fashion and the pre-match prediction it would be far tighter than the Super League encounter six days earlier, which ended 46-30 in the Rhinos' favour, seemed spot on.

Kick-off was delayed for 15 minutes after referee Steve Ganson pulled a calf muscle in his warm-up, video official Richard Silverwood called down from the stands to take over, but Tom Briscoe quickly continued where he left off last Sunday.

He scored four in that game and crossed in the eighth minute at KC Stadium as Hull – bolstered by the return of Craig Fitzgibbon, Richard Horne and Danny Tickle – made the first impression.

But he would end up on the losing side again and, this time, it would be another England winger collecting four tries, Leeds's Ryan Hall.

Hull were 10-8 up at the end of the first quarter, Jordan Tansey sprinting over after Leeds failed to deal with Briscoe's surge down the left, Tickle striking the conversion.

Leeds, who sprung a surprise by including Jamie Peacock after a late injury to Ali Lauitiiti, had scored when the impressive Carl Ablett made the first of his many incisions, Kevin Sinfield missing the kick but adding a penalty.

However, with Hull having lost the dependable prop Lee Radford to a rib injury early on, the first signs of his side meekly breaking became apparent.

Ablett easily outdid Peter Cusack with his footwork and then fended Danny Washbrook before putting Brent Webb racing to the line, Ian Kirke charged through Horne's attempted tackle and swatted off Tansey to touch down before a lax Craig Hall dropped Tansey's pass on the first tackle inviting Ryan Hall in for his first.

There was some amazing handling from Leeds during this period with Burrow – at his jinking and electric best – to the fore but none more so when Hall finished off his second a minute before the break.

The under-rated Ablett, showing the sort of drive which could see the second-row earn an England call-up, hit a perfect line off Keith Senior's pass before Burrow and Webb combined to see Hall – who started the move – scramble over again.

Sinfield's fourth conversion made it 30-10 and Hull, whose other starting prop Mark O'Meley was battling on with

a popped rib, had disintegrated.

A foolish Washbrook flop handed Leeds position to strike again early in the second half, McGuire stealing close before Burrow picked out Hall for his hat-trick.

Hull then had a raft of possession camped on the Leeds line, the visitors defending manfully for the majority of four back-to-back sets before Richard Whiting finally breached them.

Briscoe knocked on at the play-the-ball in the re-start set though, the sort of unforced error which hurt the Airlie Birds so badly.

Their centre Kirk Yeaman was carried off with a suspected broken leg while Burrow continued his excellent performance by slipping in a perfect kick with his weaker right foot for Webb to notch his second.

The scrum-half was then yellow-carded for his spat with Lauaki who, having already been placed on report for a reckless tackle on Webb, was fortunate not to receive the same punishment.

Jordan Turner slipped over while Leeds were down to 12 men but Ryan Hall picked up a wayward Richard Whiting kick to race 90 metres for this fourth, Whiting's try in the 77th minute meaning nothing.

"We started the game well but didn't come up with enough plays and didn't get a 50-50 (decision) all day," said Hull coach Richard Agar, who also saw Tickle depart with a knee injury.

"It's a pretty devastated dressing room in more ways than one. We're busted up and it's like a war zone in there but we certainly didn't help ourselves.

"We had one set out of 14 at one stage and needed to weather the storm better than we did. A couple of the tries were pretty unacceptable efforts."

Hull FC: Tansey; Hall, Whiting, Yeaman, Briscoe; Washbrook, Horne; Radford, Houghton, O'Meley, Manu, Tickle, Fitzgibbon. Substitutes: Lauaki, Dowes, Cusack.

Leeds: Webb; Smith, Delaney, Senior, Hall; McGuire, Burrow; Leuluai, Diskin, Bailey, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Sinfield. Substitutes: Buderus, Burgess, Kirke, Peacock.

Referee: R Silverwood (Mirfield)