Leigh beat Hull to keep play-off hopes intact

Betfred Super League

Leigh (12) 42

Tries: O’Donnell 4, Halton, Hardaker 2, McIntosh Goals: McIntosh 3, Hardaker 2

Hull FC (12) 12

Tries: Moy, Barron Goals: Charles 2

Kai O’Donnell scored four tries as Leigh beat Hull to keep alive hopes of reaching the Super League play-offs.

O’Donnell and Frankie Halton put Leigh 12-0 up, but two tries in six minutes before the break, from Logan Moy and Harvey Barron, dragged Hull level.

O’Donnell added a second-half hat-trick to take the game away from Hull, with Lachlan Lam providing three try assists after the break.

Zak Hardaker passed 150 career tries with a second-half double and Darnell McIntosh crossed as Leigh ran away with it.

Victory extended Leigh’s longest-ever unbeaten home run in Super League to seven matches, with Wigan the last side to take points home, back on 4 April.

More importantly it kept them within five points of the play-off places, with sixth-placed Salford due to visit next weekend.

In stark contrast, Hull’s longest streak without a Super League away win rolled on to 15 matches – all the way back to a derby win over KR in July last year – and they stay 11th, two points above basement side London.

While O’Donnell’s four-try haul and Hardaker’s landmark scores were obvious focus points, Lam bossed the show, laying on five assists – four of them in the second half as the Leopards went through the gears.

O’Donnell opened his account midway through the first half before Halton hit Lam’s cut-out pass to race over from 10 metres.

Hull looked to be fading until Carlos Tuimavave’s break from halfway sent Moy away to score.

With McIntosh in the sin-bin for a dangerous tip-tackle, Barron’s try and Jack Charles’ touchline conversion somehow brought the Super League strugglers level.

But order was restored after the break when O’Donnell collected Lam’s grubber kick to dot down and then turned provider for Hardaker to complete his Super League century of tries and 150th in all competitions.

It was time for Lam to turn the screw as Hull subsided, looping a pass for McIntosh to walk in before his grubber kick teed up O’Donnell’s third.

Three minutes later, O’Donnell had his fourth, again courtesy of Lam, and there was still time for Hardaker to grab a late second for career try 151.

Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam:

“Kai’s up there with being the best in Super League. He probably could have scored two more tries on top of that.

“He leaves nothing in the tank. I tried to get him off with 10 minutes to go, but he said he didn’t want a rest and scored his fourth try.

“He is the ultimate professional and got what he deserved with the four tries. I’m sure his team-mates understand that doesn’t come by luck – he works hard for that.”

Hull FC interim head coach Simon Grix told BBC Radio Humberside:

“I thought we did OK first half. We lacked cohesion with the ball, as you can imagine with the number of changes, and then physically we just ran out of tackle.

“They played a bit smarter, which just took it away from us.

“Again, it sounds like a cop-out, but we’ve got a lot of young blokes out there who are learning on the run.

“It’s tough for the group because they are trying; we’re just not good enough at the moment.”

Leigh: Hardaker; McIntosh, Hanley, Leutele, Charnley; Hughes, Lam; Amone, Ipape, Mulhern, O’Donnell, Halton, Asiata.

Interchanges: Dwyer, Davis, Pene, Trout.

Sin-bin: McIntosh (37).

Hull FC: Moy; Barron, Tuimavave, Briscoe, Martin; Walker, Charles; Ese’ese, Smith, Aydin, Cartwright, Ruan, Gardiner.

Interchanges: Balmforth, Chan, Eseh, Jebson.

Referee: Jack Smith.