Hull FC boss Tony Smith addresses thrashing by Wigan Warriors

Hull FC boss Tony Smith has had his say on the shock 40-0 defeat to Wigan Warriors in their final pre-season friendly.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Smith said of the defeat: “It’s easily done, and I’d rather it happen in a friendly before we get into the start of the season. Those things can happen in the season, as we know, teams get on roles but I’m glad it happened now before we start.

“We need to work out why now, how we release pressure and why we didn’t apply enough pressure in the same way that Wigan did to us.

“Sometimes it’s the harsh lessons you learn the most from. We’ve all had those experiences before. It’s how it pulls you together and makes you more resilient once you deal with it and once you take ownership for it. We’ll do that on Monday. We assess ourselves in an honest and open way. That will be a good way for us to head into the season.”

Hull FC boss takes positives out of defeat

Smith also picked up on a few positives in the game hoping that the Black and Whites can turn things around for the derby against Hull KR.

He said: “I thought our big men in Franklin Pele, Herman Ese’ese and Jack Ashworth were very good. They showed some of why they are here and some of what they can do, particularly in the first half.

“They had a whole lot of workload. I would have liked to have seen us share that around a bit and create a bit more on the edges. We had a whole lot of ball and dominated field position in the first half, but we needed to come up with more to put pressure on Wigan.

“That’s what they do, they soak it up and they come back at you. We had the better of the first half, we conceded from a scrappy kick that we looked like we were going to field, and there was a fumble. It was one of the few things we did wrong in the first half, but we needed to be a little more potent with the ball.”