John Cartwright issues Hull FC recruitment update with further additions hint

New Hull FC boss John Cartwright insists the Black and Whites have the room to add to their squad should they feel the need to. Hull have already made nine new additions heading into the new season, with training to begin over the next two or three days at the club’s west Hull base.

John Asiata, Jordan Rapana and Aidan Sezer are perhaps their most high profile additions, but they’ll be joined at the MKM Stadium by Zak Hardaker, Ed Chamberlain, Oliver Holmes, Jordan Abdull, Amir Bourouh and Case Cust. After such a disastrous 2024 campaign, Cartwright believes Hull’s recruitment strategy, which has been led by director of rugby Richie Myler, has been measured.

But, the head coach has revealed that the club have left themselves the cap space in order to make additions should they identify the right man.

“We’ve got a settled squad now, we know what we have,” Cartwright said. “There’s a little bit of room there to add if the right player comes along. I think we’ve been pretty cautious not to jump in and sign players, we’ve been as patient as we can be.

“That has left us with a little bit of scope if we need to improve. Our import situation is full but the British game I think is thriving at the moment. I watched that Test match on the weekend and they’re competing with the very best in the world at the moment, they’re producing players and we’re on the lookout for the next one.”

The Hull FC boss added: “I know with what we’ve recruited, we’ve recruited winners who won’t sit well if they’re not competing week to week, no matter who we’re playing.

“The side last year showed at periods, especially whilst they had consistent halves on the field, they showed that they could compete with anyone and they had some really good wins in that period and went close on several occasions.

“They lost the two halves, there were young kids that came in and it was very hard on those young boys to go in and expect them to run a side.”