Ian Watson explains the problem at Hull FC

When Ian Watson brings his Huddersfield Giants side to take on Tony Smith’s Hull FC on Sunday, the Black and Whites will be looking to avoid an eighth consecutive defeat.

With a hugely talented squad, questions have been raised about what is going wrong for Hull and Watson has explained what he thinks is the problem:

“I think any team you go up against, if you are complacent you will lose, the competition is too tight now.

“They have Tony there who is a great coach and knows how to mould a team. If you look at his time at Hull KR, it took him some time to get them to play the way he wants them to play and then he took them to the Super League semi-finals in 2021 and then the Challenge Cup semi-finals last year just before he left which was against us.

“He turned them around, look where they are now are. He had a hand in that.

“He has an ability to turn the tide but the thing with Tony, he tries to build his team around being skill based and sometimes when those players aren’t used to that, it takes time to develop that and get them to develop and believe in that.

“It’s about building things. If you have success straight away, that is not going to last. You have to build something.”

He backs Smith to get it right and hopes they don’t get it right for the weekend:

“I know the quality of Tony, he will get it right but hopefully he doesn’t get it right this weekend.”