Hull FC v Leeds Rhinos: Lee Radford wary of the dangers Leeds pose to leaders Hull

His league leaders saw their 10-game winning run brought to a sudden halt at joint-bottom Huddersfield Giants last week.

They will seek to start a fresh run this evening when Leeds Rhinos – now bottom on their own after Huddersfield’s heroics – arrive at the KC Stadium.

The defending champions, of course, were the last side to beat Hull before the Giants, way back on April 18.

However, each club’s trajectory since then has been markedly different – Leeds now, remarkably, staring a relegation battle in the face and Radford’s side on course to challenge for the same treble that tonight’s opponents achieved just last October.

After a 16th defeat of the season against Widnes Vikings on Sunday, Leeds are officially confirmed in the Qualifiers for the next stage of the season, but the Hull coach believes that actually makes them more potent this evening.

“I think it does make them that bit more dangerous,” said Radford. “With Leeds anyway, offensively, you don’t know what’s coming…

“They transfer a ball from one side of the field to the other in three passes and just when you think play’s going away from you it comes back to you.

“So, they’re very unorthodox with how they play with the ball.

“They are very high energy and support fantastically well. Add to that the fact they’ve not got a great deal to play for and, I think, it’s going to multiply that style.”

The important aspect for Radford, though, as it has been all year, is getting the right performance from his own squad.

He expects a response tonight having believed he has got to the bottom of why Hull were so uncharacteristically poor in the 
22-12 defeat at Huddersfield.

The 37-year-old takes it back to the weekend before when Hull slogged it out against Catalans Dragons on a sandy, re-surfaced KC Stadium pitch to reach the Challenge Cup semi-final.

“Looking back at last week’s game we needed some energy,” explained Radford, who hopes to remedy that by recalling Kirk Yeaman, Liam Watts and – if he is fit after reporting in ill yesterday – captain Gareth Ellis.

“We were energyless. That’s not me being critical of the team – there was a reason for that.

“I watched Catalans lose to Wigan on the Saturday and Catalans were the same.

“That fixture obviously took a fair bit out of both sides and showed in our performances.

“It goes to show, I suppose, the level of competition now in Super League; if you have that off-night, the bottom of the table beats you and that’s a credit to the competition.”

He added: “When two or three players have a really, really flat performance you put it down to them for maybe not preparing well or some personal reasons.

“But when it’s a squad there’s a reason for it and I felt, looking at the 17 blokes who turned up for Catalans, they looked very similar.

“Maybe that Catalans game, the emotion and the pitch – I imagine if I had to play a game of rugby on a beach it’d take a bit out of my legs as well – took its toll so hopefully that was that.”

Wigan have now drawn level with Hull at the top with three games remaining before the cut-off point for Super 8s.

Asked if it would have a psychological effect on his side being top at that mark, Radford replied: “If we were 10 points clear, that’d be great.

“But I think there’ll be some twists and turns within the 8s.

“It’s the elite teams playing each other week-in, week-out, and all four-point games I suppose.

“There will be some slumps possibly from us and some spikes for sure. I think we worked out there’s 14 games left still to play – providing you do everything – which is a phenomenal amount and it’s fatiguing, that’s for sure.

“But we’re solely focusing on performance and fixing that up.

“I keep narrowing the focus about righting a couple of wrongs about how we play against Leeds.”

Rhinos will hand a debut to James Segeyaro, the Papua New Guinea hooker signed from Penrith Panthers, who they hope will spark them up ahead of those critical Qualifiers.

On Hull’s own talisman – Ellis – Radford is not too concerned if the former Leeds and England second-row does miss out.

“If we can get him out there and manage him in terms of game-time next to his energy levels then we will do,” he said, about the 35-year-old.

“But if he’s not right he’s obviously very important to what we do and want to achieve.

“And he’ll have a fair old build-up leading into the decent size fixture (derby rivals Hull KR) we’ve got next Thursday.”