GREAT Britain scrum-half Richard Horne is confident Hull can overcome an early-season crisis when they take on Leeds at Headingley tonight.
Captain Lee Radford will miss the second match of the engage Super League campaign because of flu, while the continued absence through injury of Paul Cooke, Paul King and new signing Willie Manu will test the new strength of last year's beaten Grand Finalists.
Second rower Graeme Horne, who was in Hull's Old Trafford line-up in October, takes over from experienced Radford, who has missed only one match since re-joining his hometown club from Bradford 12 months ago.
"He shouldn't have played last week," said coach Peter Sharp. "He's a massive loss to us. We're going through a tough patch, we've just got to tough it out."
Hull have Kiwi Motu Tony back from illness while either Richard Horne or last year's captain Richard Swain will lead the team.
They have won just six and drawn one of 21 previous Super League meetings with the Rhinos but have been victorious in their last two, including that 44-28 victory at Leeds last May.
But Hull began this season with a surprise 10-10 draw at home to last year's wooden spoonists Catalans Dragons and Horne admits they will need a significant improvement if they are to collect their first win of 2007.
"When we won there last year, it was the time of the season when we clicked," he said. "Now it's the start of a new season and things aren't quite as fluent as they were then."
Leeds kicked off the new season with a 30-26 triumph at Salford and they are boosted by the return of Great Britain captain Jamie Peacock from a fractured eye socket.
The Rhinos are expecting a bumper crowd for the home debut of New Zealand full-back Brent Webb, but coach Tony Smith is only too aware that Hull are capable of spoiling the party.
"Hull had a great year last season and they have been expressing their desire to go one better this season," he said. "They have quality players across the park. We had some very good contests over recent years and I am sure this will be another one of those.
"Both teams have very passionate supporters and it makes for a great atmosphere, almost derby-like, so it should be a great night."
Leeds' Great Britain centre Keith Senior starts the 400th match of his career, needing three tries for a total of 200 in club and representative fixtures.
