John Asiata was a green shoot for Hull FC despite Thursday’s defeat.
Hull FC loose-forward John Asiata produced an encouraging display – albeit in defeat.
John Cartwright has hailed Hull FC loose-forward John Asiata, stating he is ‘as good as anyone in the game’ at playing the middle link role. However, the club will continue to manage the players minutes after coming back into the side following some significant hamstring surgery in the off-season.
Starting his first game of the season at Wakefield Trinity on Thursday night after an appearance off the bench against York last week, Asiata’s initial 30 minutes paved the way for Hull to take a 10-4 first-half lead, with the player shaping the side up alongside Aidan Sezer to score two tries through Lewis Martin.
Asiata then came on for a second stint with 17 minutes to go, but Hull, at that point 14-10 down, were starved of field position and couldn’t turn the tide. But Cartwright, speaking to Hull Live post-match, is backing the player to keep on getting better as his minutes increase, starting at Leigh Leopards in the Challenge Cup next week.
“When Johnny is on the field, we certainly are a much more organised side,” Cartwright said. “He’s just so experienced and he’s as good as anyone in the game at playing that middle role. That’s only his second game back so whatever he’s showed so far he’s going to improve on.
“He’s been sorely missed last year and he’s been sorely missed this year in the early part of the season. We’ve just got to make sure we don’t rush him. He’s coming off the back of some major surgery.
“We’ll keep giving him a little bit extra each week – we’ve got to make sure we look after him first and foremost and then the team comes after that. He played about 50 minutes tonight. He played 30 last week. We’ll look at playing him a little bit longer next week.
“He’s up against Leigh and he loves the challenge of playing against his old club. He’ll want to play 80 minutes but we’ve got to protect him from himself as coaches.”
Cartwright was also encouraged by what he saw from James Bell, who made his Hull debut off the bench and played the half an hour or so between Asiata’s two stints.
“I thought he was fantastic,” Cartwright said. “He brought a heap of energy. He’s aggressive – he’s not the biggest guy in the world but he leads the way. On the back of no pre-season and some pretty big surgery, I thought he did a fantastic job.
“There were little signs like that, Johnny having another game, Belly coming into the side. There’s a few things in there to like.”
On Asiata and Bell potentially playing together, something both players have spoken about to Hull Live in the pre-season, Cartwright added: “It’ll take a bit of time. They’re similar type players, and with two halves, a full-back, and a middle, there can be too many in the mix.
“Belly can play edge back row as well. We’ll see how they go. They both just need game time over the next month and then we can sort out some combinations after that.”