Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield kicked his side to a fourth successive win as the champions celebrated Keith Senior's 500th career appearance with a thrilling 43-30 win at Hull.

Sinfield converted all seven of his side's tries, six from the touchline, to make himself the difference between the two sides at the KC Stadium, much to the delight of his coach Brian McClennan.

"He's an outstanding kicker and his form over the last month has been unbelievable he's been banging them over from everywhere," said McClennan, whose men are now just two points behind St Helens at the top of the table.

Senior was joined on the scoresheet by England wing Ryan Hall who bagged a brace to push himself beyond 20 tries for the year as Leeds raced into a 30-6 lead at one stage before Hull mounted a stirring comeback that was eventually defused by a Rob Burrow drop goal and Lee Smith's late try.

"I was pretty happy with that, we were pretty comfortable," McClennan added. "I knew once we got the ball we'd do something with it and we did. Smithy got a nice try off Ali (Lauitiiti) and Rob was smart too at banging over the drop goal so that it put us 13 ahead. It was pretty smart play by Rob.

"It was hot out there and I thought both teams really attacked and really put on some good plays. We know we can defend a lot better than that but we're still happy to get the two points."

Hull coach Richard Agar had some harsh words for video referee Ben Thaler after his men slipped to a 12th loss in 15 games.

Their performance was greater than that statistic suggests, though, as former Australia star Shaun Berrigan inspired them to produce one of their best showings of the season.

But Agar was left to rue a first-half decision that went against his men, when Thaler, who has also been on the receiving end of some high-profile criticism from Hull KR coach Justin Morgan this season, deemed that Paul King had caused an obstruction in the build-up to a try by Willie Manu.

"I still for the life of me can't fathom why that try was disallowed, I've no idea," Agar said. "If we're disallowing tries like that I don't know where we're going with the game. It's no surprise knowing who the video ref was, it's no surprise to me whatsoever, but it was just a dead-set try."