Brett Hodgson has praised the character and spirit of his side following yesterday’s Betfred Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to St Helens.
The Airlie Birds narrowly missed out on a trip to Wembley, going down 33-18 to Kristian Woolf’s side in a nail-biting encounter at the Leigh Sports Village.
In a determined second-half showing, Hull fought back from being 20-2 down to bring themselves withing three points of the Saints at 21-18 with just six minutes remaining on the clock. However, late scores from Regan Grace and Lachlan Coote meant it was FC who exited the competition at the semi-final stage.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Hodgson said: “It’s obviously a very hard one to take.
“There was a few boys shedding some tears in the dressing room after the match. They put a huge amount of effort into that performance, and the fight we showed to stay in the game in the second-half was indicative of that.
“There was some incredible character shown. The way we played in that second-half is how we want to perform going forward in the league. We showed we can match Saints for long periods and were almost good enough to beat them.
“I don’t think the scoreline reflects the game, and that second-half in particular.”
One the series of events that led to St Helens’ penultimate try, in which Regan Grace intercepted as Hull piled on the pressure looking for the try to put them ahead in the closing stages, he added: “We were one play off scoring a try to potentially put us into a Challenge Cup Final, or certainly allow us to keep piling on the pressure on the St Helens line at the end of the game.
“It’s a game of fine margins. If we execute that play where Regan Grace intercepts and scores their penultimate try, then its a different story.
“Jake Connor hits that pass perfectly 99 times out of 100 – the one time that it doesn’t come off, it’s against Saints in a game of this magnitude. We don’t want him to stop looking for those plays because more often than not, they come off and create something special.
“Ultimately, it wasn’t to be, so we move on and need to ensure we continue to compete in Super League.”
On the physical battle in the sweltering heat, he continued: “It was physically gruelling. Both sides were out on their feet for long periods in that game.
“Losing Josh Griffin affected our rotation in terms of when we wanted to use our interchanges, but that’s Rugby League and you have to adapt.”
On Griffin’s injury, he said: “”Josh isn’t in a good place. It looks like he has ruptured his Achilles. He’s hurting pretty badly at the moment.”
Hull’s head coach also weighed in on the ensuing try that came from Griffin’s injury incident, ensuring he has no hard feeling about the way Saints half Theo Fages scored the try.
“I have no issues with the try that Theo Fages scores off the back of Josh’s injury – it’s just part of the game and they were making the most of an error.
“I don’t think he is a dirty player – he just saw the ball on the ground and did what he had to do from their point of view. It’s just part of the game. It wasn’t disrespectful.
“It’s a difficult one as everyone on our side was a lot more concerned with what happened with Josh at the time, so I can’t be angry at the players for switching off at that moment.”
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