Black and Whites can't | afford to let everything go to waste this season

THEY'VE MADE PROGRESS, BUT MUST NOT LET CAMPAIGN FIZZLE OUT

- By DAN TOMLINSON

After 20 minutes of Saturday's clash between Hull FC and Leeds Rhinos, it looked like a fierce contest was forming, but sport sometimes does strange things.

The first quarter was a real battle as both teams got stuck into each other. In fact, Hull built some decent field position and also repelled their line. They were in the thick of it and perhaps could and should have taken the lead. But then it all changed.

Around 20 minutes in, Hull mixed up a block play and gifted possession back to Leeds, who didn't pass the opportunity by. They then compounded that error, kicking the resulting restart out on the full and Leeds scored again. And then they gifted a third try with another mix-up on the block play seeing Jake Connor intercept and race away to score.

That left Hull a mountain to climb, who, in between those mix-ups, lost Herman Ese'ese and then Ed Chamberlain to injury.

Already doing it tough with big players out, it was the last thing they needed, and it left them a mountain to climb - and with too many square pegs in round holes, they were well beaten at 34-0.