Rohan Smith increases uncle Tony's woes as Leeds Rhinos defeat Hull FC

An error-strewn contest was kicked into gear midway through the contest as Rhinos scored three tries in quick succession courtesy of James McDonell, Tom Holroyd and Ash Handley to make it 18-0 at the break.

Handley scored early in the second half to put some serious distance between Leeds and their Yorkshire counterparts, but Hull replied twice through Carlos Tuimavave and Davy Litten between home tries from Mikolaj Oledzki and Rhyse Martin, as the Black and Whites' slump continued.

The sides failed to get a grip of the game early on as a scrappy start was littered with errors.

The first dangerous moment of the encounter came 18 minutes in when Aidan Sezer's chipped ball over the top was chased down by Martin, but referee Jack Smith judged a knock-on before the ball was grounded with the tie still scoreless.

The hosts made the breakthrough with the game's first bit of quality as McDonell collected a clever offload from Blake Austin and dived over the whitewash before Martin kicked the extras to make it 6-0.

Rhinos got a grip of proceedings and soon doubled their advantage after Harry Newman set Nene Macdonald away down the right. He kicked on to Handley and grounded to help make it 12-0.

Leeds were firmly on the front foot and looked to score with every attack; this time Holroyd claimed the try when he sprinted over towards the whitewash and Litten's challenge was not enough to stop the momentum. Leeds were soon 18 to the good with Martin's third successful kick.

The visitors started the second half in similar fashion to the first as they seemed to self-destruct with more errors, and the hosts were on hand to punish them when a string of set restarts allowed Handley to weave his way through for his second of the game eight minutes into the second period.

Hull got themselves an unlikely consolation as Ben McNamara high kick was collected by Tuimavave before diving over in the in-goal to help cut the deficit to 20 points.

Leeds regained their 26-point advantage shortly after Oledzki proved too strong for the Hull defence, and Martin's 100 per cent conversion rate continued with his fifth kick of the night to make it 30-4.

The visitors cut into the Leeds deficit once again with 15 minutes to go when Litten bundled over the try line after a period of Hull pressure, but Martin rounded off the night with another try for the hosts before missing the extras for the first time in the night.

Coach Rohan Smith has welcomed prop Tom Holroyd’s England call-up and insisted he wasn’t “dropped” to the bench for Friday’s 34-10 home win over Hull FC.

Smith said: “It was an opportunity for Sam to start and Tom to play some more minutes. He did well and had some real impact.

"It wasn’t a demotion to the bench, it was to give him an opportunity to attack a more tired defensive line.

“He did that and the England call up was certainly warranted, he would be in the top middle-unit English forwards in the comp.”