Hull FC suffered another derby defeat – with a former Airlie Bird starring once again.
Hull FC interim coach Andy Last.
Hull FC coach Andy Last has highlighted Jez Litten as a key reason for his side’s loss to Hull KR on Thursday night.
The Robins made it nine successive derby wins with a 34-20 triumph over the Black and Whites, who took an early 12-0 lead after a frantic start but who were soon made to be second best at the MKM Stadium.
And Last has put that down to the Rovers hooker, who made sure the East Hull outfit owned the middle of the field in an influential display in front of an 18,809 crowd – a figure the interim coach praised post-match.
“I’m really disappointed,” Last said. “It would have been great to get two points. It was an unbelievable crowd that came in, nearly 19,000, on the back of a season where we’ve really struggled.
“Again, I’m just really, really disappointed that we didn’t get the win for them. The loyalty of the supporters is second to none. It was a great atmosphere, a hotly contested derby again. Unfortunately for us, there were a couple moments that we didn’t quite nail again.
“We got off to a great start. We felt like the start was important for us to get the engagement with the supporters, and we also felt like Rovers were a little bit fragile after their last two performances. It couldn’t have gone any better.
“But I thought the introduction of our bench gave them a little bit of momentum. Jez Litten started to pick his passes and started to roll that ruck. We just weren’t able to get any ascendancy in the ruck from a defensive point of view. They just rolled us down the field and the tries we conceded were really soft tries, barge-overs due to fatigue and not getting that ruck control.”
Outlining a big improvement for his side and a stronghold of the Robins, Last continued: “There’s some stuff defensively that we need to work on as a unit. They just rolled us. Amir (Bourouh) was in there; Max Wood (Cade) Cust and Belly (James Bell) – we didn’t do enough to control that ruck speed.
“I thought Jake Arthur’s kicking game was sensational. He put Joe Burgess under pressure but the inability of the team to control the ruck speed in the last 15 minutes of the first half hurt us. It got away from us and we felt a little bit harshly done to be going in at 12-all after starting so well.
“Then in the second half Rovers just did what they do, which is suffocate you with field position and dominate you with that position. I ended up with a bit of a neck ache as I was constantly looking to my left all of the time and then that pressure that they put you under forces you into making errors. We made some mistakes. We made poor play choices and didn’t execute, and Joe Burgess runs away to put the final nail in the coffin in terms of the outcome of the result.”
Cutting a frustrated figure, Last will now attempt to regroup his side, who head to Huddersfield Giants on Thursday night, but there’s no denying the hurt of another derby loss.
“We were in it for a lot of it,” Last said. “We’re learning some harsh lessons, but we’ll look at it on review, pick out some bits where we need to improve, and look forward to Thursday’s game at Huddersfield.
“But it certainly hurts. We had a good week. We felt confident. And the way we started and went in front, we thought, ‘We’re going to go on with this,’ and it’d have been nice to get the result.
“It’s our job now as staff to try and get the guys off the canvas and try and learn from the game and make sure we’re ready to go again.”