Andy Last has described his excitement and pride ahead of his first Hull Derby as interim head coach this evening.
The Black & Whites travel to the Totally Wicked Stadium to face Hull Kingston Rovers, holding the bragging rights going into the game having defeated the Robins in February, while also looking to make it three Betfred Super League wins in a row following a recent positive vein of form.
It will be first time Last has gone up against Rovers since taking the interim head coach role, having featured previously in fixtures at both academy and reserve level.
Speaking on his excitement ahead of the clash, Last said: “I’m really excited. This is a really good opportunity for us to build on the work we have been doing in the last four weeks, but we also have to understand it is a dangerous game; we are expecting the best of the Robins on Thursday.
“I have some fantastic memories of this match from my time at the club already; the Good Friday fixture in 2016 where we came back from 20-0 down was a big one – that kickstarted our memorable season, and last season’s Good Friday effort too with the blowout score. The first game at the KCOM Stadium back in 2007 was really special too in front of a full house.
“It really is a game of pride with two proud sets of supporters from two historic clubs, and two really proud owners.”
However, Last admits that despite the emotion of taking charge of his first Hull Derby fixture, he has tried to keep a lid on his side’s emotion in the build-up.
“I think building the game up is something we haven’t done too much. We had to put a bit of a lid on it today in team run in terms of the emotional side of things.
“In the past, derbies have been won and lost because “they wanted it more than us”, but I believe it is the team that settles into the game first and earns that momentum comes out on top.
“The players will generate their own atmosphere and emotional when they’re out on the field; we have plenty of local boys in there who it means so much to, and that will be reflected in the team selection. It is really important to us as a club to have those players in there.”
He added: “I’ve tried to detach myself emotionally from it really. I’ve coached several derbies in the academy and reserve grade, and when you get caught up in the emotion, you suffer the negative results and they hurt and linger for a while.
“I don’t want emotion to cloud my judgement so I’ve kept it tactical and technical. We will touch on the emotion briefly before the match, and the passion, but we need to stay level header.”
But Last says there is plenty of personal pride to be leading the Black & Whites into a first clash against the Robins, adding: “I’m a proud local boy who has supported the club since I was a young lad, and was fortunate enough to represent the club.
“I’ve been association with the club for 25 years in various roles, so to be in the role of head coach is a proud moment for me and my family, and hopefully I’ll remember this day for all the right reasons.”
Last explained that he expects Josh Griffin to start the game at full-back in place of Jamie Shaul, who is set to miss a prolonged period with a serious knee injury sustained against Castleford, while also explaining his dilemmas in the back-row.
“We’re going to look at keeping Jake in the halves, so it’ll be Josh Griffin at full-back. He’s done a good job there previously as a strong ball-carrier, and it helps to continue to build the momentum of Jake and Sneydy in the halves that they’ve been building. It’s important to keep them together as they’ve taken some really positive steps in recent weeks.
“We have some tough decision to make in the back-row; we have some real quality and depth in there. Jordan Lane was arguably our best player for five or six weeks, but then unfortunately he’s missed a few games because of Covid-19.
“Manu Ma’u and Andre Savelio have done a superb job there since pairing up and you don’t want to disrupt that. They’ve been exceptional, so it is a tough one on Laney but he understands why we’ve made that decision.”
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