Red-hot Furner puts steel back into Leeds

Slick and clinical in attack, solid and uncompromising in defence. They are not phrases that have often applied to Leeds, the game's great underachievers, for the past two decades, but the Rhinos could hardly have been more impressive yesterday in reaching their 10th Challenge Cup semi-final in 11 years.

Now they will want to avoid St Helens, their last-four nemesis in each of the past two springs, in tomorrow's draw. But the early signs are that after some difficult times in his first two seasons as coach, Daryl Powell has assembled a team with the steel Leeds have lacked since they last won the cup, in the last Wembley final in 1999. "We've got a different mindset here this year," he said.

Leeds are rightly proud of the youth policy that produced seven of yesterday's starting 13, including the 22-year-old captain Kevin Sinfield. But it is the three old heads Powell signed during the winter - Gary Connolly at full-back, Andrew Dunemann at stand-off and David Furner in the second row - who give them the appearance of genuine contenders this year.

Furner in particular was outstanding here, scoring 20 points with two tries and six goals, and winning the man-of-the-match award for the second round running. "He's rock solid," Powell said of the former Australia forward. "We're certainly glad to have him."

It was Furner who started the Rhinos stampede, steaming on to a perfect Dunemann pass for their first try in the 17th minute and adding a tricky conversion. Hull had competed strongly up to that point, and the game might have been very different if they had been able to capitalise on half-breaks by their Kiwi centres, Richie Barnett and Toa Kohe-Love. Instead Leeds added a second try inside three minutes, when Sinfield's kick bounced perfectly into the arms of Keith Senior, and the visitors found themselves 14-0 behind.

Barrie McDermott, the Great Britain prop who is being kept out of the Rhinos starting team by Ryan Bailey and Wayne McDonald, then bumped and spun through three defenders for a try that made his point to Powell, and the tie was as good as over.

Hull did not see it that way, with their captain Jason Smith surprisingly opting to take two points from a penalty beneath the Leeds posts rather than go for a try. Steve Prescott briefly raised hopes of a fightback when he squeezed in at the right corner in the third minute of the second half but Sinfield settled home nerves with an intelligent captain's drop goal, then Mark Calderwood scored the fourth Rhinos try after a powerful run and one-handed pass by their other Aussie second-row, Matt Adamson.

The game rather dragged after that, mostly because of a series of lengthy deliberations by the video referee, who awarded two more Leeds tries to Francis Cummins and Danny McGuire and twice denied Hull. They did manage consolations from Tony Smith and Prescott, who might also have been awarded a penalty try when he was felled by Connolly's high swinging arm, an incident that was put on report and could land the former Wigan veteran in disciplinary trouble this week.

Leeds Rhinos: Connolly, Calderwood, Walker, Senior, Cummins, Dunemann, Burrow, Bailey, Diskin, McDonnell, Furner, Adamson, Sinfield. Subs: McGuire, McDermott, Feather, Poching.

Hull: Prescott, Best, Kohe-Love, Barnett, Crowther, R Horne, T Smith, Greenhill, Last, King, Logan, Fletcher, J Smith. Subs: Ryan, Cooke, Chester, Higgins.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham).