Club Historian Bill Dalton looks back at how Jamie Shaul fares amongst the club’s all-time top try-scorers having bagged his 100th for the try on Thursday evening.
Shaul became the 24th player in Hull FC’s history to record a
century of tries for the club in the fixture against Salford on
Thursday.
He made his debut for Hull in a Super League game at Wakefield Trinity
on 1st April 2013 and marked the game with the first brace of his 100
tries.
Supporters at that first game immediately recognised that Hull
had found a special player in Jamie and then head coach Lee Radford had been proved right to insist on the club signing him amid doubt caused by
Jamie being deemed over the age for Academy due to the rule changes
prior to the 2013 season, added to the fact that the club weren’t running a
reserve team at that time.
Game time was found for him by loaning him to York City Knights, but he was included (on the wing) only three times, although he did register a try, against Leigh.
An injury to Shannon McDonnel meant that Hull utilised Tom Briscoe and Richard Horne at full-back before Radford pitched Jamie into the contest at Wakefield on Easter Monday 2013. He later earned the comparatively rare
distinction of appearing at Wembley in his first season, thus emulating
fellow full-back Icon, Arthur Keegan.
He is by some distance the highest try-scoring full-back at Hull FC, the
nearest challengers being Steve Prescott (56) and Shaun Briscoe (57),
although a number of Shaun’s Tries were achieved on the wing. Jamie’s
ability to back up anywhere on the field allied to his tremendous pace
off the mark has resulted in many a memorable long distance score.
Jamie’s century came up in his 178th Hull FC appearance, which is a
pretty good strike rate by any yardstick. However, among many
spectacular scores, his most memorable effort will always be the try at
Wembley in 2016, which, with Marc Sneyd’s conversion, put Hull into the
lead and eventually secured the Challenge Cup.
Shaul now finds himself in fourth spot in all-time list of Hull’s top scorers in the Super League era, with just Kirk Yeaman (176), Richard Horne (134), and Gareth Raynor (106) ahead of him, meaning third spot is already within in touching distance .
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