Hull FC take on Huddersfield Giants this weekend – with Andy Last laying out the challenge to his players.
Hull FC celebrate Harvey Barron’s try at Warrington. (Image: Dave Lofthouse, Hull FC)
Andy Last has insisted that his Hull FC side are creating the opportunities to win games of rugby league, but they must start icing those opportunities and ensure they don’t become ‘results blind’.
The Black and Whites have left points on the field in recent games, and none more so than at Warrington Wolves last week. And while Last pointed to a ‘dive’ from Marc Sneyd that ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’ would have been proud of in a disallowed try for Harvey Barron, the focus is on Hull now to ice their moments when they break the line and get into good ball.
Challenging his side – who continue to stay in the contest with their grit and tenacity – to nail the big moments, Last said: “We’re always in the fight. That’s something that this group of players have done very, very well over the last 18 months. We’re competitive and we don’t let teams get away from us too much on the scoreboard.
“And when you stay in the fight, you give yourself a chance because you only need a moment of brilliance to unlock an opposition defence and get the scoreboard ticking over in the right direction for your team.
“There were moments on Friday against Warrington. I’ve stressed that Aidan Sezer makes a break, Jake Arthur makes a break, Lloyd Kemp makes a break, and we get pulled up for a try with Marc Sneyd taking a dive that Cristiano Ronaldo would have been proud of.
“We did create some opportunities. We just didn’t ice those moments, and then what happens is you sometimes become a little bit results blind and we say we haven’t scored again, but when you looked at the game, there were some moments where we should have posted points and that’s something that we have tried to stress to the players.
“It’s not that we aren’t creating opportunities. We’re just not nailing them. The margins of error are so small in Super League, but we’re not far off. We need to just stay confident, stay positive, and know that our luck will turn if we keep working hard.”
Taking on Huddersfield Giants this Saturday afternoon, Hull, without 15 players to injury and suspension, return to the MKM Stadium after three games on the road. Looking to end a run of four defeats, a victory, any victory, is crucial against a side who have also lost their last six and are rooted to the foot of the Super League table.
“We need a win,” Last said. “Winning is important. Performance is important. But it will be good for the guys and their confidence to get the win.
“From an offensive point of view, we’ve worked on some little tweaks, moving the ball a little bit sharper. The execution of our passing also needs to be a little bit better. We need to get the ball to the edges.
“We’ve just got to be confident and keep working with the players we’ve got and encourage them to come up with the right plays. I’m hopeful that we do that this week.
“It’s going to be a tough game. Huddersfield have had a change of head coach and Jim Lenihan has got a decent pedigree and a good CV from his time in the NRL. They have got some strike and they will challenge us with some shapes and some plays and we’ll need to be on our mettle defensively. And on the flipside, we need to make sure we expose some of their vulnerabilities and post some points.
“There’s pressure but there’s pressure every week. We’re just desperate for two points. I don’t think we’ve been getting the rewards for some of the effort that we’ve been putting in. There have been some really close games and a bounce and ball here and there, certainly against Toulouse, Bradford, and Warrington, and then we could be sitting in a completely different mindset as an organisation and as a team. We need to put a strong performance in now and do everything we can to get the win.”