John Cartwright has lauded the fight and spirit within his Hull FC side but is now craving the ‘final piece of the puzzle’ as the Black and Whites continue their battle to earn a Super League play-off position.
Hull’s hopes for a top six finish took a big blow on Saturday afternoon, losing 13-6 to St Helens at the MKM Stadium. But despite what was an uphill battle, Cartwright’s side never backed down, showing plenty of effort and resilience in what was a plucky defeat, albeit another frustrating one with a high error count ensuring they were chasing the contest early on.
Hull went behind 8-0 at the break, and after falling to 12-0, hit back through a long-range try from Davy Litten. But it wasn’t enough, with the home side unable to get a foothold for long enough periods.
“With the ball in hand, that was probably a bit similar to last week,” Cartwright, speaking to Hull Live post-match, said. “I thought we showed a lot more intent with what we tried to do, and we handled adversity better than what we did last week, and to give ourselves a chance to win the game, or get back even, was really tough to do on the back of the statistics that we turned up with at the end of the game.
“It’s a bit of a broken record for us this year, and I probably sound like a broken record, but you can only state the facts as you see them. But I love the way that they come together, and I love the way they work for each other. There are not many sides that would have hung in on the back of the possession that we tossed up and the possession they had.
“They’re a very good side, and they drain you – they’ve got a big pack of forwards, and they just play through you. They’ve got smart spine players, and they keep on testing you. I just thought about how we stopped them from scoring and the number of times we did – I love that – but that game is done; we’ve got to keep turning up with that sort of stuff.”
Asked for answers on the error count again, Cartwright pointed to confidence but used Aidan Sezer’s play as a strong example of the solution, with the half running hard to set up Litten’s try. He continued: “I think a few players are lacking a bit of confidence, ones who haven’t been around the game for a long, long time.
“This is where they get it. It’s a tough game, and you’ve got to get tough with it. You’ve got to confront those things, and as soon as that ball is available, get that ball under your wing, charge into it, and show you’ve got no fear about it. There might be a little bit of hesitation there on the back of errors.
“Our skipper took the bull by the horns and showed the way. He got the ball off the ruck and ran hard, and Davy did well to support him. By not building any pressure, that was the only way we were going to get back into the game.
“I also thought just a few kicks – if we could have landed them – we could have been in late on. We gave away a penalty on one too, but if we made that tackle and built some pressure on their try line with sets, that’s the thing – you don’t break good sides with just one set with the ball; it’s got to be continuous, and I thought that set when we gave the penalty away was our real opportunity to go after them, but that just took the pressure off.
“We just need to catch the ball and then play the ball – it’s the first thing we learn in the game. It’s as basic as that – we’re not making errors on the back of sweeping plays or sweeping moves or guys trying to lob balls out of the back; it’s just basic errors. We’ve got to fix them.”
Hull fielded Zak Hardaker at full-back, with Jordan Rapana playing in the centre. Hardaker went strong again while Rapana too was improved before going off for an HIA. Hull also saw Brad Fash leave the field.
“It was a shame,” Cartwright said on Rapana. “That’s the confidence I talk about. He wanted the ball in his hands, and he wanted to make tackles. That’s where we’ve all got to get to.
“That hurt us. We had to make a lot of positional changes once he came off. It wasn’t ideal, but the pleasing thing was I was really happy with his performance today. He also passed his HIA. He’ll be okay. Fash, I’m not sure. I’ll have to check. He came off. He was exhausted.”
Hull now face a short turnaround before Thursday’s game against Wakefield – a big play-off rival who are flying high with ten rounds to go.
“They’re all going to be big games now,” Cartwright said. “We’re fighting for the bottom part of the six. There’s still 10 games to go and 20 points to grab. That’s the way we’ll approach it. They’re all big games; today was big. We could have been right up St Helens’ backside, but it didn’t work out. We’ve just got to nail next week. We’ve got Wakey, and they’re a good side, and they’re playing well. It will be a tough one.
“We really appreciate the support again. No one likes losing, but for me, the hardest thing about losing is losing here at home and not being able to celebrate a win and give them something to talk about for the rest of the week. I’m sure, like me, they can see the effort in the group, but it’s up to everyone now just to get the final piece of the puzzle. It’s not far away – it was close today, but I feel we’re not far away.”