Hull need a big response at Bradford.
Brad Fash leads a Hull FC team talk.
Andy Last wants to see Hull FC get back to the basics at Bradford Bulls next Sunday afternoon.
The Black and Whites are back in action at Odsal after a week off, looking to right the wrongs after a poor defeat to Toulouse Olympique last time out.
And for the interim head coach, there’s no magic formula that will see Hull – who were poor in attack against the French side despite plenty of opportunities to score points – get back on track. Instead, it’s about putting in an honest performance based on attitude and showing a willingness to do the simple things to effect.
“We need to play with freedom,” Last said. “We need to build the game on the back of the basics, which are making your tackles, completing your sets, landing the kicks on the last tackles in good areas, and chasing hard.
“We did that at Castleford and it allowed us to express ourselves with the ball because we created fatigue in the opposition. If you put fatigue into the opposition and build a little bit of pressure, it gives you the opportunity to do what we did.
“I’m really going to be stressing that message. We scored our points on the back of doing the basics really, really well.”
Preparing for what will be a huge game against the Bulls, Hull did their recovery as normal at the start of the week before a big training session on Wednesday. They’ve had an extended weekend off due to the Challenge Cup and will resume training this week ahead of the West Yorkshire clash.
“We need to make sure that we’re doing the things that we need to do well to put in a strong performance,” Last continued. “Those team-based actions – supporting the ball carrier, chasing well, pressuring hard, diving on any loose balls, and making sure that we’ve got numbers in the frame – they’re all so important.
“We also know we need to be a little bit more organised in good ball. I think our good ball attack has been a work in progress this year. We’ve tweaked a little bit on how we’re setting up the team to play.
“We want to see more execution on our shifts and making sure that we’re being genuine on our leads and aspects of our attacking play. That’s a big focus area.
“Then defensively it’s trying to keep the opponent in their own end a little bit more and not make it easy for them to get out of their yardage positions.
“I don’t feel as though that is an area that we spoke about at the beginning of the season, improving our line speed and improving our yardage defence. So that’s a message that we’ve touched on.
“All of those things have been stressed to the players and the challenge for them is to do it on a consistent basis. And that’s the message that we’re going to be driving consistently between now and the end of the season.”