Hull FC head coach John Cartwright is refusing to get caught up in Catalans Dragons’ heavy defeat to Wigan Warriors last week. Instead, the focus is all on his side doing what they need to do to get another welcome two points.
The Black and Whites head to Perpignan for the second time this season to take on the French side, who parted ways with long-serving coach Steve McNamara earlier this month. Joel Tomkins is currently in interim charge, with the Dragons hammered 48-0 at the Stade Gilbert Brutus last week.
But Cartwright isn’t taking that result as a measure of his side’s latest opposition, instead expecting the best version of le Dracs, but more importantly, setting the onus on what his own players do, from preparation now to their performance on Saturday.
“We’ve looked at that Wigan game a bit, but I think we’ll find there will be a lot of players who will play this week who didn’t play last week,” Cartwright, speaking in his pre-match media conference, said. “This will be their chance to start afresh on the back of a new coach.
“Wigan is a tough gig any time you play them. They’re going to be tough at any stage, but we’ll expect a different opposition this week, that’s for sure.
“We can’t buy into it. If we can maintain some areas that we were good in the last couple of weeks and get better at them, it takes all that out of the equation. It’s all been mentioned (the Wigan result and the coach situation), but it won’t be again from here on in. It’ll all be about us and what we need to do well to win.”
Cartwright saw his side return to winning ways with an impressive 26-12 win at Leigh last Thursday night. In fact, all eight of their wins this season have come on the road, with Hull tasting victory in Perpignan in the opening round.
The head coach continued: “Whenever you play a side, you’ve got to assume they’ll be at their best. That’s what we’re doing – we have focused on the first game and where we were able to nullify their strengths.
“That was a really good performance in the first game we played over there – I don’t think we could have played much better, to be honest – it was good to know that we are capable of that, but I’ve also seen some performances where we’ve not been so good.
“We’ve become a lot more consistent – there are a few dips here and there, and we’ve had a lot of change in personnel since that game.”
And on McNamara, Cartwright aired his own take on the sacking. He said: “You don’t know what goes on at another club. I know Steve reasonably well. Any team he’s been at, in my experience, they’ve always been really well prepared and disciplined and hard to beat.
“It’s a funny old world, coaching, rugby league, and all sports, actually – you can’t base everything on results; there’s always something going on in the background. I’m not sure what happened there, but I’m pretty sure he will land on his feet somewhere.
“They have now made a decision to go the way that they have, but it’s always a pretty dangerous proposition to come up against a side who has just lost their coach.”
Unlike February’s cool affair, which saw Hull run out 24-4 winners, Saturday’s game is expected to be played in much warmer climates, with temperature forecasts of around 30 degrees.
Cartwright insists his side will be ready for it, with the squad, minus John Asiata who has a hamstring injury, flying over the day before the game and staying over in the French city for two nights.
“It’s a totally different environment over there,” he added. “We’re walking into a pretty hot place, and that’s a challenge. It’s generally difficult in those conditions to handle the ball, so that will be the key for us. That’s one of the areas where we have improved over the last couple of weeks.
“We need to build on what we’ve built as a group since that first game. They’re looking forward to it – we really enjoyed our time there in the first round, and the main reason we enjoyed it was that we got a win out of it – that’s the key for us.”