After impressing in the club’s dominant win over Castleford Tigers, Hull FC interim boss Andy Last hopes Leeds Rhinos pair Jeremiah Mata’utia and Harry Newman can stay in East Yorkshire a little longer.
The Black and Whites scored nine tries and racked up the half-century against a disappointing Castleford side.
Newman featured in his second straight game for the club, and this week was joined by young but towering forward Mata’utia, who made his debut.
Neither managed to score a try in the 50-10 win, however both built up some impressive stats with Newman running for 130 metres from nine carries and Mata’utia providing impact off the bench, making 82 metres.
With parent club Leeds being so strong at the minute, putting on another convincing showing this week against Catalans Dragons, it could suggest there is no room for either player to get back into the Rhinos’ 17, but that wouldn’t be a bad thing from an FC perspective.
Last was asked post-match how he though new man Mata’utia fared, and the interim boss revealed: “He did well.
“He showed he’s got a really, really strong ball carry. Probably a little bit of work to do with him defensively on his movement stuff, but he’s certainly a big body, and I think that big body was something we lacked last week against St Helens coming off the bench.
“Him with the likes of Yusuf [Aydin] and Brad [Fash], it’s a nice mix of body profile and different strength.
“Brad’s a very good wrestler and a good defensive player, and then obviously big Jerry’s got a strong ball carry, so I think that complements each of them.”
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Asked whether the two are available for next week’s game against Toulouse, Last said: “It’s one of those. We’ll have a chat with the officials at Leeds at the start of the week, and then they’ll probably look at assessing their squad health and then we’ll take it from there.
“It’d be great if we can have them both again, they fitted in really, really well.
“Harry’s obviously played exceptionally well tonight, made some good breaks, defensively strong, and he’s enjoying his time here, obviously he’s been at Leeds all his career, so a change of scenery sometimes can be a good thing, it freshens you up and I think it’s certainly freshened Harry up.
