Hull FC boss John Cartwright hailed the impact of overseas half-back Jake Arthur following his side’s 24-16 win over Leeds Rhinos on Sunday afternoon.
Arthur has struggled for form since arriving at the club over the off-season and he’s come in for criticism, too. However, the Australian found his feet against the Rhinos, coached by his father Brad, to help Hull secure just their second Super League win of the season.
The 23-year-old got Hull up and running on the day, as he touched down for his first Super League try after combining impressively with James Bell. And, while FC didn’t have it all their own way on the day, Arthur kept his composure, pulled the strings and dictated play well alongside John Asiata and Cade Cust.
Indeed, it was his best performance in a Hull FC shirt so far, and Cartwright was delighted for his stand-off.
“That’s why we brought him to the club,” the head coach said. “You need depth in key areas and while Jake has been playing a second seat to Aidan [Sezer], today he had the job to run the team.
“He’s done it before in the NRL. His form has been as good as can be expected in the lead up to the game. We just haven’t built any pressure and today on the back of very little errors, he was able to get himself in the game.
“He kicked well, he understands the game, and imposes himself on the game well. When everyone around him can keep doing their job, Jake will keep doing that for us.
“I thought he was great today. He really took the responsibility on. He kicked well, defended well, and really took the responsibility on. Just his composure in some really tight situations, he was always settling his players down, and he stuck to his plan really well. He finished the game strong, too.”
On the performance and the win, which was Hull’s first since round one, Cartwright added: “We were very courageous, which you’ve to be to win any game in Super League.
“That one probably had a little bit more in it because of the quality of the opposition, how dangerous they are, and how much ball and momentum they got. It was extra courageous than what you normally have to be.
“We just haven’t been holding onto the ball constantly long enough to do it. You don’t just get the ball and score tries. You’ve got to build pressure and we haven’t been able to do that. I’m not what our overall completion rate was at full-time, but at half-time we were over 90%. If we do that, we’ll score points. It’s good for our confidence to know we can score points, but you don’t just score them – you’ve got to build, build, and build to get them.
“Nobody has hit the panic button. I’m aware that people were panicking, but within our room, no-one has been panicking. Regardless of the result today, we know we’ve got troops coming back and we had full faith in the guys who were out there today. If you look at the comp, everyone is beating everyone. It’s a tough competition. There’s no-one within our group panicking.”
