Hull FC went down 23-12 at home to Castleford Tigers tonight, with the FC head coach Brett Hodgson “disappointed” with his side’s showing.
The Black and Whites were coming off the back of a gutsy 23-22 victory over Hull KR in the derby, but Hodgson refused to blame that – or his side’s ill-discipline – for a lack of energy in the defeat to Castleford.
“It was the energy battle which lost us the game, I’m really disappointed we couldn’t get ourselves up for this game,” Hodgson said.
“I thought we looked slow and lost the ruck too many times and we had not nearly enough fight in the ruck to generate a quick play-the-ball.
“The short turnaround shouldn’t have played a role – we had to be up for a tough game but we weren’t, so I’m not going to use that as an excuse.
“Cas played the same day we did and we weren’t willing to invest enough tonight.
“I can’t think of the indiscipline at this stage, there were a lot of things in our control that we weren’t good enough at.”
Hodgson believed his side needed to attack more fluidly and take more chances.
“We played way too conservatively in the first-half, we needed to be more brave.
“Jake (Connor) didn’t get enough quality ball which is something we can look at and I thought they dominated us defensively.”
The Hull boss saw yet another one of his stars limp off the field, this time in the shape of centre Carlos Tuimavave.
“Carlos has had an ongoing Achilles tendonitis issue which just flared up with the short turnaround.”
