Hull FC host Hull KR in the derby – and there’s no shortage of motivation.
Hull FC coach Andy Last.
Andy Last has stated the onus is on his Hull FC players to bring the right attitude to Thursday’s derby game against Hull KR.
The Black and Whites go up against the old enemy for the third and final time of the 2026 season at the MKM Stadium, looking to take their second-half performance against Leigh Leopards into the clash.
Laying out the challenge, Last’s side were woeful in the first half of Saturday’s 32-22 defeat. They were down 28-0 at the break before responding in the final 40 minutes with a better account, although the damage was already done.
And it’s that level they must now find from the off against Rovers – bringing the right character, intent, fight, and attitude to their performance.
“It’s got to come from the players,” Last told Hull Live. “That’s something that is frustrating me now. Where was it in the first 40? The messaging was all about our start and building into the game with some good completions and some good kick-chase.
“We spoke about our line speed and our intent and the detail in our tackle and getting the ruck speed right, but they didn’t deliver it in that first 40, and then they got to grips with it in the second 40.
“We showed what we’re capable of, so that’s my frustration because, as I said last week, good players turn up every week, and we’ve got some players who are striving to be good players and what they’ve got to do is make sure that they get those six inches between their ears, right.
“It is hard; the game’s a really, really tough game, and you can talk about tactics and technical stuff, but there’s a certain part of the game which you have to have every week, and that’s that physicality and that intent. And if you don’t have that, you never give yourself a chance to win the game and you can get shown up.”
Looking for a first win against Rovers in over three years, there’s no shortage of motivation for Hull, regardless of the nature of their season which sees them sitting 13th in Super League.
“It will be full-blooded, and we have to go after it,” Last said. “The fact that we’re playing the derby again three weeks after we’ve had a full-blooded game at Magic Weekend is a bit crazy, but we’ll be ready for it and we’ll look forward to it.
“It’s a quick turnaround for us, so it’s a bit of a reset, a short period of reflection, a little bit of recovery and connection. And then we’ll only have one session leading into the game against Hull KR.”
Outlining the key message to his players, Last wants to see Hull break the cycle of errors and penalties, resulting in poor passages of play as seen against York Knights and Leigh. He added: “We have to do it for 80 minutes. We need to piece together our best football for 80 minutes.
“We’ve got to break that cycle. We can’t have a period where we go 40 minutes of errors and ill discipline; you can afford it for a couple of sets but not for a full 40 minutes. And we saw that last week against York, a full 20 minutes, which is a quarter of the game where we’re just not at it.
“We need to break it quickly. If we make an error, forget about that error; just make sure your next two or three sets are nice and tight and nice and safe and you get to your kick, and then defensively, you have three sets where you bend your back, you dig in, and you control that ruck speed and just get into that cycle a little bit quicker rather than it being periods of rugby where there is penalty, error, penalty, error. We’ve got to break that up a little bit quicker, and that’s what we’ll be speaking about for the derby.
“I’m sure Hull KR will be looking to bounce back against us. What we need to do is make sure that we’re at our best because if we don’t take care of our own performance, it doesn’t matter what the opposition do.
“If you aren’t nailing your own performance, you aren’t giving yourself a chance. We need to make sure that we take care of our own performance and look to piece it together for 80 minutes.”