Tony Smith has reflected on a dismal afternoon for his side at the MKM Stadium, going down 54-4 to Leigh at the MKM Stadium on Saturday.
Hull never found a foothold in the game, with the Leopards running away with the score-line scoring nine tries in all on a disappointing day for the Black & Whites.
Reflecting on his side’s performance in his post-match press conference, Smith said: “It’s not what we want to do, what we want to be known for, or what we want to be a part of, but it makes you more determined to go away and work harder and make sure you get on top of those areas that are really hurting you.
“We were way off today, and sometimes you need a fair kick up the backside to make the changes that are needed. We got our fair share of kicks up the backside today, that’s for sure.
“Some of that is our missed tackles and the pride in not missing them and someone else having to finish them. Some other areas showed that we were off it. The number of players that stood up in the tackle today. We weren’t putting them to the ground, and we weren’t winning the ruck area.
“When those things keep culminating, it makes it really, really tough, and then it puts fatigue on other people as double efforts and triple efforts are having to be made. That was the case today. We’ve got to learn some big lessons there.”
Smith added: “I haven’t seen that flatness so far this year (until today). We’ve been pretty spirited in our efforts so far. Some of those have been in tough games as well, but we’ve been in there fighting in each one of those. In other games this year, we haven’t helped ourselves, and our discipline has hurt us on occasions. We’ve done it the hard way to try and go about winning matches, and it’s probably caught up with us a little bit today.
“I thought we looked flat fairly quickly. We made an error too early on, and we didn’t respond in the best way. We got down in the energy areas, particularly early on in the match. There were just some signs there that showed some fatigue.
“We lost a bit of spirit because of that early try and mistake, and a few heads went down. Our pride got knocked early, and it was hard to restore it. We got done badly around the marker and around the ruck area. It was a really flat and jaded performance.”
Smith also provided several injury updates, with Carlos Tuimavave, Danny Houghton, Fa’amanu Brown and Tex Hoy all withdrawing from the action.
“We lost a few more with injuries today. Carlos has come up with a hamstring problem again. I feel for him at the moment, as he’s battling so hard to get over one injury, and then he’s picking up another injury. It’s a bit demoralizing for him.
“Danny is okay. His hamstring fatigued by the end of the match, and he’s finding it hard to get right through. Nu struggled to get through with an ankle problem. I think he’ll be okay. Tex got a bang on the knee. I don’t think it’s a structural thing. We’ll assess them tomorrow.”
Tony Smith is proudly sponsored by Rowe Freight.
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