A game of two halves for Hull FC. Here’s what Andy Last made of it – and what he said at half-time.
Hull FC’s Lennon Clark is congratulated on scoring a try against Leigh in his first Super League game.(Image: SW PIX)
Andy Last labelled Hull FC’s match with Leigh Leopards as a ‘game of two halves’ and says that his half-time team talk was the first time he had to question the character and guts of his players.
The Black and Whites produced their worst half of the season to date in the first half, trailing 28-0 at the break before rallying in the second half. Ultimately, they still got beat, with Leigh taking the game 32-22, but the mood was certainly improved at full-time compared to half-time after an abject first-half performance.
Summing up the match to Hull Live, Last said: “It was a game of two halves. In the first half, we didn’t get out of the blocks. We didn’t get the start right. We were ill-disciplined. We gave away cheap penalties. We made errors in yardage, basic errors.
“We just didn’t build any sort of platform to play off, and then Leigh, whom we knew, are a very good attacking team, and if you don’t put them on their own try line, they get shaped up very quickly, and when they get shaped up, they move the ball to their edges, and then when they move the ball to their edges, they get some quick play-the-balls, and they open up that middle unit, and then they’re able to play through you with Isaac Lui, Liam Horne, and Edwin Ipape.
“We just couldn’t get to grips with the ruck speed. And they started posting points. And it got to a point there where it looked really ugly.
“At half-time, I didn’t shout, rant, and rave. I just questioned the character of the players. That’s the first time I’ve had to do all that this year and basically, I spoke about, ‘Have you got the guts for the fight?’ and they responded with a far better second 40 minutes and showed if we get the fundamentals right, complete, kick the ball well and take some energy out of the opposition, we’ve got points in us, and we’re a team that can compete with good sides, but you’ve got to do it longer than for 40 minutes.
“There’s a little bit of frustration there. If we got off to a better start, we could have made a real contest of it. But I’ve been in those positions as well when you’re in front 28-0. And you talk about carrying on doing what you were doing, but psychologically you take your foot off the gas and there’s probably a little bit of that from Leigh.
“They probably didn’t value the ball as much in that second half and we put them into a position which they didn’t want to be in, but we also played some nice stuff in that second half and there were some good moments.”
Taking on Hull KR in the third and final Hull derby of the season on Thursday night, Last has some hope going into what will be the 252nd meeting of the two sides – but there’s no denying that his players need to be better – and for longer.
“It gives us a little bit of hope moving into Thursday’s game,” Last continued. “But we spoke about only playing for 20 minutes against York, and now I’m sat here saying that we’ve only played for 40. We have to be better than that.
“That’s going to be the challenge for us as a group, and that’s probably where we are as a group. We’re lacking a little bit of confidence, and you can see that in the game; as soon as someone makes an error, the confidence drains from the team, the shoulders drop, and obviously the crowd becomes silent, and that makes it difficult.
“But then when you start to nail a couple of those passes and play with a little bit more endeavour and do the basics well, it brings the crowd to life, and in the second half, the momentum was certainly in our favour and the crowd got behind us and applauded us off after booing us off in the first 40, which was justified.
“It was certainly a game of halves, and that’s the frustration for me as a coach and them as players. They know they’re capable and we’ve shown that in many games this year. We’ve been close on the scoreboard, which we’ve spoken about, but some moments go against us and some errors take energy from us, and that was evident today. We’ll need to bottle what we had in that second 40 and make sure we start the game and finish the game in the same vein.”