A pleased Tony Smith says a lot of things went well for his Hull FC side as they posted a 56-0 victory in their pre-season friendly with Wakefield Trinity yesterday afternoon.
The Black & Whites ran in ten tries at the Be Well Support Stadium, whilst keeping their Super League counterparts scoreless at the other end of the field.
Unlike their slow, sluggish start against Sheffield Eagles a fortnight ago, Hull raced out of the blocks and took an early lead thanks to Chris Satae’s powerful try five minutes in.
It started off a dominant display from a strong Hull FC outfit, and Head Coach Smith was pleased with what he saw from his side in their final pre-season outing.
“A lot of things went well for us. Managing that and understanding not to push it, whilst maintaining that level of skill and decision making, as well as the commitment to our defending – I thought all of that was very good,” he explained.
“Throughout the whole game, I thought our players did a really good job of that. And they didn’t get carried away with the situations or with each other.
“We had a really strong start and that was good. That was good in the sense that you don’t want to get a couple of kicks up the backside before you start playing.
“But the really pleasing thing was that we had a fast start and we maintained that.”
Unlike Hull’s fast start to the first-half, the Black & Whites were a little more reserved in the early exchanges of the second-half and invited some pressure on their own try-line.
But some gutsy defensive efforts prevented Trinity from creating any clear-cut opportunities to cross the whitewash.
Speaking in his post match interview with Hull FC Live, which you can watch in full here, Smith highlighted the importance of backing up errors with strong defence.
“That’s necessary and that’s how we need to be. You can’t just be good when things go well. You also need to soak up mistakes and defend those mistakes,” he said.
“If you’re able to do that, it enables you to attack with more flair – take more risks. We want to be strong in both of those areas.
“I was pleased with how the players defended today, even with the scoreline the way it was. At half-time, a lot of the talk was about maintaining our level of defence regardless of the scoreline.
“Right after half-time, there was about ten minutes where Wakefield were on our own try-line with back-to-back sets. It just showed the commitment we had to our own line and that’s something for us to build on for the rest of the year.”
The Black & Whites kick off their 2023 Betfred Super League campaign against Castleford Tigers on Sunday 19th February, with a healthy crowd set to get behind the team at the MKM Stadium.
You can book your seats for the season opener online here
STORY SPONSOR
