Andy Last on Hull FC’s poor attack, Harvey Barron’s overturned try, and the lack of a countdown clock.
Andy Last has laid out his frustrations with Hull FC’s attack after a disjointed performance at Warrington Wolves on Friday night, also pointing to a key overturned Harvey Barron try in the second half.
Barron saw his second try ruled out by video referee Jack Smith, who viewed that Ethan O’Neill ran a line to obstruct Warrington half-back Marc Sneyd from getting to Logan Moy, who in turn found the winger with a decisive pass.
But the try was chalked off after being given by debutant on-field referee Ryan Cox. And Last has pointed to the inconsistency of such decisions, while bemoaning the lack of a working countdown clock present at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, not to mention his own side’s flaws in a 12-4 defeat.
“Sneydy has played it well there,” Last told Hull Live after the game. “He gets up a little bit too high and loses his hips. He takes a tumble and he gets a call. I thought it was a bit of a harsh one, if I’m being honest.
“I think Marc probably recognised that he’d got himself out of position. Ethan runs an outside shoulder, and Sneydy takes a little bit of a tumble. When you’re in the position that we’re in, it feels like every call goes against you. I’m disappointed that went against us.
“We saw one in the cup final, Elliot Minchella. He took a tumble and the try got given. I don’t know where the difference is; it’s very, very similar, and that’s the frustration with the rules. We had one, I think it was three weeks ago (Logan Moy disallowed try at Bradford), where Zak Hardaker managed to get enough of an inside shoulder on Jaden Nikorima. Jaden Nikorima goes down and we don’t get the decision that afternoon.
“So, yeah, there’s probably been three or four where you question it; like I say, the Elliot Minchella one, that try gets given, and then tonight it gets chalked off. It’s strange.”
And on the countdown clock, which was missing for the whole first half and parts of the second, Last continued: “It’s shocking. It’s a really bad look for the game.
“There’s 30 seconds of the first half to go. We get an opportunity to kick a goal within field position, but there’s no clock and the players don’t know how long is left; the referee isn’t sure, and they didn’t take the opportunity to take the two. That puts us 6-0 at halftime and it just changes things.
“There are some things that the game needs to be better on and that’s certainly one of them. It’s just not good enough.”
However, Last also conceded that his side, who led 4-0 at half after a try from Barron, weren’t good enough to win on the night, citing the attacking flows on show.
“I’m disappointed,” Last said. “I think it’s two points that we’ve let slip there. In the second half, Warrington made some errors out of their end and gifted as some field position, but our lack of confidence and lack of fluidity in good ball, attacking positions, was evident again.
“We’re just not looking threatening enough and we’re not building enough pressure, and then we’re not coming up with enough good decisions when we’ve got the ball.
“We’re working hard. We’re staying in the game; we’re fighting hard. We’re up against a team at the top of the competition at home, not beaten at home and we’re in that arm wrestle and going set for set with them and playing a tough old game, but just in good ball attack, we’re just not looking threatening enough.
“We’re not getting on the same page and we’re making some poor decisions and turning over some cheap possessions, which we’ve got to be better on.
“We’ve got to build more pressure and try and pause more of a threat when we’ve got the ball in good positions. We turned over some cheap ball.”
On the game, which was ugly to say the least, Last added: “I thought all night they did a really, really good job by getting up the field, and the speed at which they got to the ground and played the ball was quick.
“They just matched up the field, 60 metres at a time, and we never got a grip with the speed of the ruck.
“They played at a different speed to us and looked threatening, but credit to our defence. We defended our try line well; we only conceded twice and both of those were off kicks.
“We just didn’t quite get the bounce of the ball. There are positives to take and the efforts are certainly there and the endeavour is certainly there, but we have to improve our execution.”