Andy Last has laid the challenge out to his Hull FC side.
Amir Bourouh in action for Hull FC.(Image: Dave Lofthouse, Hull FC)
Andy Last believes Hull FC will be better at Warrington Wolves this Friday night, with club captain Aidan Sezer back in the side and Amir Bourouh returning as the starting nine.
Both players missed Hull’s last game at Leigh Leopards due to different circumstances, with Sezer left out of the side for performance reasons and Bourouh sitting out after a failed HIA.
However, the pair will now line up in Hull’s spine once again, with Last encouraged by this week’s preparation and confident his team can deliver when it matters most: on gameday, and especially if they get one thing they desire above all else: continuity.
Speaking pre-match, Last said: “We know the story of our season with the disruption and change, but I think we’ll be better this week for having Amir and Aidan in that starting spine and back in the team.
“Aidan, single-handedly in some games last year, dragged Hull FC and the team on his back and got us some unbelievable results and performances, and none more so than Wigan away where he just went after the game, ran the ball, dictated the temp, and showed that real competitiveness, which we know is what Aidan is all about.
“And then, in Amir, we’ve just got to keep encouraging him to be confident and play a little bit more eyes up and have the confidence to run the ball. Any sort of quick rucks that we get, take off and run, because he’s strong and he’s powerful when he does run the ball.”
On Bourouh, who will interchange the hooker spot with Cade Cust, Last continued: “Amir is our starting nine. He’s someone who can play big minutes and play big minutes to a good standard. He’s very tenacious defensively and does a lot of good work with our line speed and has a good wrestle.
“I thought he was tracking in the right way from an offensive point of view; he probably had his best game for us in that Castleford showing. Again, we just need to keep encouraging Amir, along with Custy, to run the ball as much as possible.”
Hull go into their clash against Wire after four days off. The side regrouped last week with no game, with Last now challenging his players to show more in attack at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
“We’ve had a little bit of review, a little bit of time away, and a little bit of reflection,” Last said. “We freshened up the boys, and then we had two big sessions last week, Thursday and Friday.
“We had a good session on Monday and we had a good session today (Wednesday). We’ve focused on Warrington and putting our best performance together.
“We know can’t just sit on the ropes and try and defend our way to victories. We have to be a little bit more creative and ask more questions with the ball.
“That’s something that we have spoken about this week and that was something that we have executed in training, trying to get the spine on the same page, and try and get individuals playing to their strengths, which is only going to benefit the team.
“We have to try and be more of an attacking threat than we have been over the last month because quite clearly the amount of points that we aren’t scoring is really, really impacting and taking energy away from our defence.
“That’s something that we need to try and fix up. We need to chance our arm a little bit more, try to offload the ball a little bit more, and try to play a little bit more out of yardage. They are the things that we’ve tried to encourage the lads to do. We want to be that little bit more attack-minded.”