Hull were defeated by Leeds.
John Cartwright believes his Hull FC side had the better of the opening 20 minutes against Leeds Rhinos. However, the Black and Whites boss also bemoaned a ‘rot’ after the first quarter of the game – one his side, who had ‘to do better’, were unable to recover from.
That rot saw dropped balls and interceptions resulting in a strong Leeds surge, with the Rhinos running out 34-0 winners at the MKM Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Before that, Hull competed well with a contest forming, but injuries to Herman Ese’ese and Ed Chamberlain, amid some big moments with the ball, derailed that challenge.
Speaking post-match, Cartwright said: “In a lot of ways, I think it showed the quality of the opposition we were playing against. We had the better of the game at the 20-minute mark and that’s when the rot set in.
“Those periods of the game we’ve been really good at dealing with when a bit of momentum goes against us, but we had to be near perfect today, and especially when things unfolded the way that they did.
“In the first 20 minutes, I don’t think we played all that smart, but we were perfect with the ball (in terms of completion). We put them into corners and we defended really well.
“It was then on the back of three errors, two intercepts, and a pass that went to ground, and they capitalised and scored their points. That pretty much took the game away from us.
“The game really unfolded in that period. In the second half, we had no interchanges to call on. They tried hard; they thought hard, but I don’t think we played well with the ball. I think we can do a lot better, but again, at the 20-minute mark it was 0-0, we had field position, we coughed up the ball and they scored a try. It was all Leeds from that moment.”
However, rather than look for excuses, Cartwright said his Hull side will have to ‘cop their medicine’ and get ready to go again in what is going to be a tough game against Hull KR next week.
“It was going to be hard today, it was hard last week, and it’s no different next week,” he added. “We’ve now got a game that means a hell of a lot to the club and our supporters.
“There’s no lack of motivation there to go and do well. We’ve just got to cop our medicine there. I thought there were periods of the game where we had the ball and we didn’t do what we practiced. We could have been a lot better.
“I can understand we were chasing the game. We were 24-0 down at half-time, but you’ve still got to stick to what you practice, and then good things happen off the back of that.”