Hull FC are looking for a firm response at Bradford, starting with attitude and ending with a firm attacking focus.
Hull FC celebrate a try at Castleford.
Nothing quite sums up the highs and lows of Hull FC than the last two games. One week, fifty-point winners at Castleford Tigers after an emotionally charged week, with a feel-good factor emerging and an opportunity to kick on.
The next game? A hugely disappointing home defeat to Toulouse, where just about every pundit and his dog tipped the Black and Whites to win.
In truth, that has been the last five, six, even seven and eight years in a nutshell. From the sublime to the ridiculous, hope to despair, Jekyll to Hyde.
It’s been consistently inconsistent, but rarely has that swing been so astronomical as it was from Wheldon Road to the MKM Stadium, with Hull showing some class in their 50-10 win to an end of the spectrum where they could have played on into the night and still not scored – not even after Toulouse took their flight home back over the English Channel to France. It was one of those days.
“It’s like riding the oblivion,” Last, speaking to Hull Live, said about those inconsistencies. “You go up and then all of a sudden, it’s not just a steady flip down; it’s straight down – there’s no in-between.
“But we’ve got Bradford now on Sunday, and this is an important game in a run of fixtures that look, on paper, like ones that we should be knocking off, but in typical Hull FC fashion, one we should have got at home against Toulouse, we didn’t.
“I think that’s a big lesson for all of us as staff and as a playing group. We’ve got to turn up every week and perform at our best, and if we do that, we give ourself a better chance of winning a game. We’ve reiterated that point this week.”
Getting to the bottom of why the Toulouse performance happened, Last has done some soul searching with his squad and is now determined to right the wrongs ahead of the trip to Odsal – with a blueprint to do just that laid out.
“Bradford are a good side,” he continued. “They’re playing at home, and there’ll be a good crowd in. It’s a difficult pitch to play on because it’s a little bit smaller, so that comes with a different sort of challenge. You’ve got to be a little bit more direct and play through a little bit more, and that’s what we’ll be looking to do.
“I think we went a little bit east-west against Toulouse, and it wasn’t effective, but that always comes on the back of your go-forward, and I don’t think our forward pack got us on the front foot enough. If that forward pack gets you on the front foot and gets you some quick play of balls, you can be a little bit more direct, so to speak.
“Our forwards have been told that we need to be nice and direct early, and when there are opportunities to play a little bit laterally, then it’s up to the likes of Aidan Sezer and Jake Arthur to get those hands on the ball and move it. But we need to be a little bit more direct and play a little bit more north-south first.”
Having a week off to review and prepare, Hull are in a good space ahead of the clash – not that preparation has been an issue win or lose this year, but it’s getting the 80 minutes on gameday right that remains key.
“It’s been a long two weeks,” Last said. “I’m still not over it, but I’m looking forward to hopefully righting some wrongs. We’ve had a good look at it on review, practised heavily around the things that we didn’t do well, and just reaffirmed some things with regards to standards that we need to adhere to.
“We’re a team that needs to turn up every week and work hard. We’re very much a work-hard-first team, and if we don’t get that right, then we’ll struggle with results.
“I felt against Toulouse; we just didn’t quite apply ourselves with the right sort of attitude. For whatever reason, we didn’t hit the mark. Some players were maybe expecting other players to get the job done for them, but I think as a team, we need to make sure that we’re all turning up with good intentions to play at our absolute best and have a mentality to work hard.
“The players were aware of that. The review on Monday was blunt and to the point; some home truths were spoken, and the players owned it as well. They held their hands up and said it was an unacceptable performance.
“We need to make sure that we’ve got the right attitude now against Bradford. We can’t change the past, but what we can do is focus on what’s coming up and that’s playing well. We’re hoping for a far better performance.”