Hull FC “hurting” as Tony Smith berates more ill-discipline

Following another heavy defeat to Huddersfield Giants, Hull FC head coach Tony Smith has spoken on the club’s ill-discipline and how despite it constantly hurting them, it is becoming a tough “cycle” to break.

Hull FC are the team with the worst Super League disciplinary record and they saw a further three yellow cards dished out to them during yesterday’s humiliating 56-22 loss at home which could cause further problems due to possible suspensions.

Two of those cards went to forward Ligi Sao who became embroiled with former Hull FC man Jake Connor as tempers rose in the glowing spring sun at the MKM Stadium but for Tony Smith, there was little to bask in.

Reacting to the third loss in which his side have shipped 50+ points, Smith told BBC Humberside: “Look, it’s bad. It’s a bad taste, that’s for sure.”

Conceding in the first minute certainly won’t have been part of the gameplan and whilst FC managed to get on top for the next ten minutes, they quickly folded as their opponents ran in seven tries in the first forty minutes to blow the game well beyond Hull’s reach.

Continuing, Smith said: “There were positive aspects at times but not for long enough and at this level, if you’re not good enough for long enough and you can’t back it up for a period of time then it hurts and you get hurt.

“It’s almost a self-inflicted pain at times but at periods we can go for 5-10 minutes and put some sustained pressure on our opponents and sometimes they crack. But we can’t keep them out long enough to do that regularly enough to get ahead in the scoreboard and add some pressure that way.”

Hull FC and their terrible disciplinary record

Specifically, it was the discipline that he outlined as being the main contributor to the team’s downfall, not simply from this week but from the constant extra tackles and yards that players have had to cover across the opening seven rounds of Super League, FC only managing to retain 13 players on the field for a full 80 minutes on one occasion.

Asked about the additional three yellows, the Hull FC boss responded: “That hurts, we’re hurting ourselves as I say, self-inflicted and some of that’s discipline and some of that’s habit and some of that’s habits that need to be broken.

“We’re trying hard to get some of those habits broken but when you get put under pressure then you tend to revert back to what you’ve always done. Unfortunately, that’s always hurt us and we’re hurting ourselves. It’s a bad cycle to get in. So until we can break those habits it’ll keep happening.”

Having accepted that the team are potentially set to cop a ban for either Sao or Jack Ashworth’s indiscretions, Smith noted that it was bringing opportunities to give youngsters game time but that there will be plenty of work done during the team’s upcoming week without a game.

He explained: “We’ve been tested a fair bit in terms of personnel. We’ve got to dip into the young guys and maybe they’re some of the answers for us because, in the long term, they are. That’s what we’ve got to be doing. We’ve got to be bringing these young guys through and getting them ready to be first graders.”

On the team having no game next week, he ominously stated: “It gives us a chance to do some more hard work and today shows we need plenty. We need to do plenty. I think it will be great for some of our players. Some of our players need to get some hard work under their belt, there’s a few that need to get a rest in this week.”