John Cartwright has hailed Hull FC winger Lewis Martin after his winning try on Thursday night and insists it was no mean feat. In fact, the Hull head coach believes the score was a ‘sign of a really good winger’, with Martin having to ‘power’ his way to a 20th try of the season.
The 20-year-old’s effort was just rewards for Hull, who dominated Wakefield Trinity in the second half to record a first victory at the MKM Stadium in 12 months and, in doing so, put themselves back into the play-off positions.
Hailing Martin and fellow winger Harvey Barron, Cartwright believes the duo are getting back to the inspirational form they showed at the start of the season, with both players topping the 100-metre total during the 16-10 victory.
Speaking on the winning try, which came after efforts from Zak Hardaker and Jordan Rapana, Cartwright said: “Lewis had to do a lot of work. Sometimes wingers get some tries on a platter, but that one was certainly not on a platter. He had three guys in front of him, and he had to power his way over and get the ball down. That was a sign of a really good winger to be able to score in that situation.”
On his wing duo, who carried for a combined total of 35 hit-ups, making a combined 221 metres with no handling errors made, Cartwright continued: “It’s a long season for those guys who haven’t played a lot of Super League and who haven’t experienced footy week in and week out like they are at the moment.
“They’re both at different stages, and they’ve had periods where we thought, ‘With Tommy Briscoe there, do we rest them?’ But I think they’re both learning from being out there on the field. Hopefully, the pair of them have come through that hard part of the season, which is generally through the middle, and they’ve come through it well.
“The way they took it upon themselves to get us out of some positions we were in deep in our own end, I don’t think either of them made an error, and they made a lot of carries and a lot of meters. As a middle, it’s a good feeling when the wingers are bringing the ball back to you.
“They were enormous tonight, especially in the first half when all the middles did was tackle. They got back onside, and they carried the ball really bravely into a wall of fresh-faced defenders. I thought they were great.”
Hull had a strong completion game to thank for victory, with an error-strewn first half replaced by a strong second. Rolling their sleeves up, Cartwright’s side got some fluency and rhythm into their game, charging up the field and getting to their kicks, getting a roll on and eventually posting the points to win the game.
Showing that his pleas for completion bring rewards, Cartwright said: “The game showed that today. In the first half, we didn’t do it. In the second half, we did do it. They were no brilliant tries. We just had good players running hard with the ball.”
Hull also had some superhuman efforts elsewhere, and none more so than from Herman Ese’ese. The big prop played for over an hour, making 180 metres from 21 carries and 29 tackles, with no missed tackles, errors, or penalties given away.
Ese’ese was followed by another strong performance from Liam Knight, with Cartwright explaining, “They’re able to play those sorts of minutes, and thank god that they did. We were in all sorts of trouble with our interchange. It was just the energy and right across the board—I thought our outside backs did a tremendous job early in the tackle count. The kick chase was really good in the second half, and it just gave us some field position to play a bit of football.”
And on Rapana, who produced again in the centre after a tough run at full-back, Cartwright added: “I’m over the moon for Jordan. He’s a real competitor, and he’s a real team man.
“I’m not too worried about the criticism, as it doesn’t come from anyone here. It hurts though—he’s got kids, he’s got family, and it’s not nice when things are personal, but he’s answered it like we said it would. He’s a champion of the game, and you bag him at your will.”