John Cartwright has lauded Hull FC hooker Amir Bourouh for his strong displays this season. However, the head coach has also conceded that the Black and Whites may have to ‘manage’ his minutes as the club negotiate the second half of the season.
One of Hull’s best new signings this year, Bourouh has been one of the side’s go-to men. A consistent performer, the little dummy half has been superb in defence and has played big minutes in the middle of the park.
But Cartwright has stated that the club might have to start managing those minutes in the coming weeks, with another player, Denive Balmforth, coming into the fold.
Hull started the season with Bourouh and Balmforth interchanging the position. However, an injury to Balmforth at Huddersfield back in February saw Bourouh take it on full-time. And barring one game since Balmforth’s comeback from that hamstring issue, that’s been the case ever since.
However, Cartwright is now open to managing those minutes to get both the best out of the Halifax native, ensuring his time on the field is quality, and also for the betterment of the team, and ensuring through Balmforth’s interchange, who signed a new three-year contract at the club earlier this term, that the side are keeping their opposition’s defence honest from marker and beyond.
Speaking to Hull Live, Cartwright said on Bourouh: “He’s been great. The role was probably going to be split in terms of game time between him and Denive, but when Denive got injured, he was able to push through and play 80 minutes. He’s just consistent. You know what you get with him. He’s a really strong defender and a really popular and good team man.
“He’s playing a lot of minutes, though, and that might be something that we have to manage as the season gets on and you start to feel those aches and pains, but at the moment, he’s just lapping it up.
“They don’t hold back the players – you’ve got your 80-minute players, and then there are some guys who just can’t play 80, but they’re never holding themselves back; they’ll just keep going until they can’t get off the ground, and then you know you’ve got to give them a spell. It’s nice to give them a spell sometimes, but at the end of the day, you just want your best players out on the field.”
Heading to Leigh on Thursday night, Hull will make the trip across the Pennines knowing they will be forced into at least one change after Jordan Rapana’s injury. The back suffered a head knock at Leeds last week and is automatically ruled out through the sport’s concussion protocols. He has to now pass the return-to-play checks after sitting out for 11 days, but if he passes the routine check ups, he will be available for the trip to Catalans on May 31.
In the meantime, Tom Briscoe, who started the Leeds game on the bench, will likely move to the starting centre spot vacated by Rapana, with an interchange spot potentially opening up for Balmforth. Cartwright admitted that is an option, with the head coach also considering an extra forward given the short turnaround from Friday’s game at Headingley.
“Possibly,” Cartwright replied when asked by Hull Live if Balmforth could spell the hooking role. “He had a reserve grade game last week and he played on the edge in the back row. We wanted to have a little look at him there.
“It helps him and us – the more positions that you can handle and get confidence in, it’s going to help him throughout his career, and it will certainly help us.”
Cartwright added: “We’ll meet as coaches later in the week and finalise the team. It’s a short turnaround, and we want to give them every possible chance to recover. We might need an extra forward on the bench this week. We’ll weigh all that up before the captain’s run.”