Hull FC go up as favourites against Castleford Tigers on Friday night.
Hull FC receive the Steve Prescott Cup.
Hull FC had a sense of optimism after hammering Castleford Tigers 50-10 back in April. It was satisfaction after two tough weeks of the John Cartwright saga, with Andy Last getting his interim spell as head coach up and running with a commanding victory.
There was hope then for a home game nine days later against Toulouse Olympique, with Hull expected to back up their Castleford scalp with another win. What could go wrong? Oh to be so naïve.
That day, Toulouse turned the tables on Hull with a 12-4 triumph in a game Last’s players were overwhelmingly expected to get another two points in. But that’s been a trouble with FC sides in recent years; they falter when fancied, and it’s a trouble they need to overcome against Castleford this Friday night as heavy favourites after a satisfying win at St Helens last time out.
“Don’t tell them,” Last joked to Hull Live when asked how to get beyond that favourite tag. “We need to get them in that mentality of we’re the underdogs and it’s backs to the wall.
“We’re expecting Castleford to be the team who played against Leeds Rhinos and they were exceptionally good in that game. That’s been the message to the players: the challenge for us is consistency.
“We can’t afford to read into it that we’re a better team than them or we’re the favourites because we’re not there. We’re still 12th on the ladder; Castleford are above us, and that’s how we’ve got to approach the game: that we’re the underdogs and let’s be the best version of Hull FC and play exceptionally well and perform to our best and that’ll get us the job done on Friday night.”
It’s been a common frustration for Hull to taste defeat when the favourite, but it’s not down to overconfidence or anything like that, but again, it’s a challenge they need to overcome at the MKM Stadium in order to record back to back wins for the first time since March.
“It’s a tough question, because the messaging is right,” Last said. “We talk about consistency. We talk about performance. We talk about one to 17 being an eight or nine out of 10. But after the event, we sit in these press conferences and say too many players were a five out of 10, and that’s the mark of a good player, to do it week in, week out.
“I’ve said this before, but that’s the challenge for this group. We had some performers, some senior blokes, on Thursday night, playing probably as good as they have done for five or six weeks, and it’s no coincidence that we got the result.
“So we need one to 17 hitting that 8/9 mark out of 10 again, and if we do that, it’ll be enough to get us a win. Those words are ringing in their ears. Batch has been driving that message home; Aidan Sezer has been driving that message home.
“Herman, Harvie Hill, Amir Bourouh, Belly – that front four there did a great job as getting us on the front foot last week and dominating in the opening exchanges. We need them still the same on Friday night against Castleford, and that’s what our target is.”
On the clash, Last added: “I’m confident and we’re looking forward to the game. The boys are in good spirits. The bus ride on the way home on Thursday was in celebratory mode. We aren’t going to get too carried away because we should have that feeling more, but there were some real positives in the game against St Helens.
“I thought the way that Jake Arthur and Aidan Sezer linked together, the execution was excellent. Harvey Barron scoring a hat-trick of tries and the way the middle unit controlled the ruck speed, both offensively and defensively, were excellent for us.
“There were some things in the game which I was well pleased about, and we just need to try and consistently play that way for longer this week against Castleford. They are hurting. There’s some uncertainty behind the scenes with what’s going on with their coach Ryan Carr, but they’ve still got a capable team.
“We know that if we give them too much good ball, they’ve got some real strike players, and they can cause you problems, so we need to make sure that defensively we are strong and we’re playing that process well, getting set for set and hoping that if we can keep them in that process for long enough, we’ll be able to come out on top.
“We’re preparing for the best version of Castleford but we need to take care of our own performance. We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas and make sure we’re completing sets and executing accordingly – that’s what it’s going to take to win on Friday night.”