The Hull FC head coach on derby defeat, his sides slow start, and Lewis Martin’s overturned try.
Hull FC dejected safter their derby loss to Hull KR.(Image: SW PIX)
John Cartwright has no complaints with Hull FC’s derby day defeat and insists he hasn’t seen Lewis Martin’s overturned try enough to pass comment, albeit the messages on his phone insisted it was.
The Black and Whites were trailing 10-6 when winger Martin crossed over in the left corner after Davy Litten’s offload. The try was given on the field before the video referee opted for a second look.
Several replays later, it was overturned, with Hull – second best on the day and punished for a slow start – also losing John Asiata to a hamstring injury the play before Martin appeared to have scored.
It capped a tough day at the office for Hull – who also lost Joe Batchelor and Arthur Romano – to injury, but Cartwright had no issues with the manner of Hull KR’s 24-6 victory – their seventh consecutive derby day success.
“I’m not sure how long there was to go; there were probably around 25 minutes, but if we had been given the green light there, we could have been in front with 25 to go,” Cartwright said post-match. “I’ve got a lot of messages on my phone saying it was a try, but I haven’t had a proper look at it yet.”
Rovers went 10-0 ahead in the first half after tries from Jack Broadbent and Oliver Gildart. Hull hit back through Tom Briscoe before Jez Litten swung the momentum back the Robins’ way on the hour mark. A brace from Joe Burgess then completed the victory.
“They thought really hard,” Cartwright said of his team’s performance. “I’d never question their courage and the never-say-die attitude of the players, but it’s not good enough to win games against most opposition, especially against this mob.
“Even though we were in the game at half-time, we didn’t play well in the first 40 minutes. We did well to keep them to two tries, I thought, on the back of the penalties that we gave away and the errors that we made.”
On the errors, he continued: “It’s just hard to put your finger on it. We can play games where we complete at 90-95% and then we can play games where we complete at just over 50%. We got better as the game wore on, but our interchange got thrown around with some injuries.
“Losing Batch early and then Johnny really hurt us on the interchange. But we didn’t play well enough. We needed to be consistent with the ball and try to execute the plan that we had in the first half. We were in the game on the scoreboard but that wind was a big advantage for the time that had it.
“We had to turn around what we were doing with the ball. I thought we did that, to a degree, in the second half, but in losing Johnny, we lost a lot of direction, but it’s no excuse. I’m not using that as an excuse.”
Outlining his disappointment to concede two tries late on, Cartwright added: “I was really upset for the players that they scored a couple of tries at the end. If we had gone in 16-6, we didn’t play well enough to win the game, but it would have had us talking about the courageous effort of the players to keep turning them away.
“We were against that wind and we were trying to create things that probably weren’t there. We came up with a couple of errors and then we conceded a couple of late tries. I’m always disappointed when that happens, but you look at the 75 minutes before that happened, and at 16-6, I think, we’re still in the game. But the first 40 minutes is where it got away from us.”