Hull FC may have broken their home duck with victory over Wakefield Trinity on Thursday night, but head coach John Cartwright has already issued a warning to his side ahead of Saturday’s game against Wigan Warriors.
The Black and Whites had a strong second-half performance to thank for their 16-10 win. However, their first-half account, at least with the ball in hand, was poor, with their display again tarnished by a sequence of ball-handling errors – seven of which came inside the opening quarter of the game.
Thankfully in defence, Hull fronted up to only trail 10-0 at half-time before scoring three tries after the break to win the game. But Cartwright, happy with the courage and character of that facet of his side’s game, has insisted that history will be harder to repeat this time around should the same situation unfold, with Hull’s challenge to tighten up their error count and perform as they did in the second forty.
After a completion rate of 40-something per cent in the first half, Hull completed the game overall at 81% – a big turnaround, with Cartwright’s side centring their game off strong, hard, and direct running, getting to their kicks, turning the opposition around, and getting into that rhythm, eventually taking their chances when the opportunities arose. And it’s that same methodology the Hull head coach wants to see from the off against Wigan this weekend.
Speaking post-match after Thursday’s game, Cartwright joked: “It’s a nice easy one next week. We’ve got a few troops down on what we’ve already got down, but I’m just loving—even the last few weeks when we haven’t played well—the courage and the character they’ve shown.
“We’re just trying to be consistent with our performances and the problems we’ve been having over the last month. We start again next week, and it’s another challenge. If we play as we did in the first half, we’re going to have to be just as strong defensively, and that will be really tough against Wigan.”
Achieving a season first last week with an elusive home win, Cartwright also shared the relief of the side’s triumph over Wakefield, a win that puts them back in the Super League play-off spots with nine rounds, or one third of the season, to go.
“It is (relief),” Cartwright added. “The fact is we hadn’t won a game at home for a long time. There had been some reasonable performances, but at the end of the day, everyone wants to see a win.
“I’m really pleased that we don’t have to talk about that anymore, and we’ve still got a lot of games to go. That’s our challenge now—to prove it wasn’t lucky and that we can do it again.”
Hull face two home games after the trip to Wigan, hosting Huddersfield Giants and Salford Red Devils with a week off in between the two matches.