Hull FC having an exciting crop of young guns coming through their scholarship system.
Hull FC scholarship players celebrate a try.(Image: Dave Lofthouse, Hull FC)
Penrith Panthers changed the status quo with their four-peat NRL premiership success from 2021 to 2024 – and it was by no means a fluke. It was a model based on years of youth development and a model, by their own admission, that Hull FC’s next crop of youngsters want to mirror.
Taking the scholarship programme by storm, Hull FC’s under-16s have swept up all before them so far this year. Unbeaten in their five games to date, they hammered Leeds Rhinos 58-0; won away at Warrington Wolves, no mean feat these days; got a last-minute winner against Huddersfield Giants; ran out comfortable winners at Hull KR; and most recently annihilated Castleford Tigers 66-6 at the University of Hull.
There’s a belief within rugby league circles that this group, a large proportion of which came from the all-conquering West Hull team, are a little bit special, and while it’s potential alone right now with a long road ahead to first team, the excitement from those at the club is there to see.
That excitement comes with good reason. This is a crop of players, Isaac and Jacob Last, sons of interim head coach Andy Last, not to mention Cam Windley, Jake Fletcher, Jethro Attah-Boakye, etc., etc., who have played together at their community clubs for over a decade and who share a common goal to play for Hull, their hometown club, and mirror what the Panthers have done. It’s a big dream, but it’s one they believe can become a reality.
It’s also a dream their head coach, Jack Lazenby, is fully behind. Nurturing and developing those young players, who hope to earn academy contracts for 2027 and a trip to Australia with the Black and Whites, there’s an ideology and way of playing that sits easy on the eye.
It’s not quite ad-lib, but there is a clear instruction to play what they see, move the ball, and express themselves. That brand has been on show this year; it’s crisp, and its execution is on point. There’s polish, charisma, power, and pace, and while it’s early, early days, it bodes well for what’s to come.
“We really try to prioritise the players expressing themselves,” Lazenby, speaking to Hull Live, said. “The players that we’ve got, they are a very talented group, and we don’t want to overcoach them, in a way, so that they just fall into one kind of structure.
“We want them to play with their eyes up, get the ball to the space, and once it’s quick, just play rugby. That’s what they’ve been doing since they were six years old, and it’s about keeping that rugby in them and not trying to force them into certain shapes and structures.
“A lot of those boys have been playing rugby for 10 years together now, and while there are some very, very good individuals in and amongst that, I think their biggest strength is them as a group and their understanding of each other.
“It helps that they play with each other week in, week out, and train with each other here at the club and at their amateur club. It’s a credit to their coaches from their amateur club as well, but I think that connection that they have got has built a really good spine for this group, and the way that they bring on the younger lads and the standards that they set is a really, really good asset to have.
“They just complement each other, the style of play that we’ve got; we’ve got no-nonsense forwards, explosive forwards, some good runners of the ball, some good organisers of the ball, all the components that, when you’re looking at a team, just benefit each other, and the way that they click when they play is really, really good.”
On their dream to match what the Panthers have done, Lazenby continued: “It’s a very long journey for these boys, and you never really understand where it will go and what it will take, but when I joined, I heard references to the Penrith Panthers group; that’s what they strive to be here at Hull.
“I think they want to play together, they want to play for the club, and I think their ultimate dream is to replicate that. Obviously, our results have been good, but it’s more about the development and the progression that these boys have shown over those five games, just giving them some pointers and looking at the way that they want to play.
“It’s more about progressing them for the next level. That’s what the programme is about. Yeah, the results are good, but it comes on the back of performance and these boys’ development over the time they have been here.”
After five games at scholarship level, the squad are next in action against Leigh Leopards at the end of June. For now, it’s all about school exams and playing again at their community club – a reminder in itself of how young and raw they are and why patience to let them develop naturally is crucial.
“We’ve played five games in six weeks,” Lazenby explained. “We’ve got a seven-week block now before our next game, so it’ll just be touching up on around the shapes and just some philosophies that the club wants to kind of drive forward in these lads. We just really want to keep progressing them.
“The ultimate aim is to take as many of these boys through into the academy pathway, and obviously, reserves and then the first team is the dream, but it’s getting them ready for the next steps and the next phases within their careers.
“There will be a bit of downtime, obviously, with the exam pressure, but they’ll keep training and just keep ticking over what we’ve been looking at and what we’ve been doing.”
Reaffirming the long-term aim, Lazenby, who plays for NCL outfit West Hull and coaches alongside the Green and Golds head coach Ryan Steen, added: “As a club, the ultimate goal is to bring through Hull-based talent. It’s what the fans want and what the club wants: to produce our own talent.
“Ultimately, you’ve got a team of lads from Hull here who care about the club that they are playing for. The investment, the time they put into it, the effort, what goes into these programmes, the scholarship, the academy, and the facilities at the university are all really good. Hopefully in four or five years’ time, we’ll see it all come into fruition.”