Hull FC man Jordan Rapana announced his plans to hang up his boots on Friday morning, with the New Zealander calling time on his career at the age of 36.
Rapana has spent just one season with the Black and Whites and despite being contracted for next season, he will listen to his body and step away from the game. As such, his career will come to an end when Hull’s season does, with John Cartwright’s side still in with a shout of claiming a play-off spot.
However, Rapana’s decision gives Hull a little bit more flexibility when it comes to the recruitment market for next season. The East Yorkshire outfit were full up on the quota for next season, with the additions of James Bell, Liam Knight, Sam Lisone and Jake Arthur meaning they had 10 overseas players contracted for next season.
Rapana had been taking up one of those spots of course and that means the club now have two possibilities regarding recruitment. With Cartwright speaking before about his desire to add a centre to his ranks for next season, the loss of Rapana opens the door for Hull to go and fill that outside back slot with another overseas signing from the NRL.
Given the sheer lack of domestic centre options available at present, that might just appeal to Hull FC as they push to make the next step under Cartwright and continue on their positive trajectory.
Alternatively, they could now decide to keep hold of Ligi Sao, who is off-contract and prior to Rapana’s retirement, the club had no available space to keep him. Sao has been with the Black and Whites for six seasons now, making 104 appearances along the way.
Unfortunately, though, just two of those appearances have come this year with the knee injury he picked up against Wigan Warriors in February ruling him out for the rest of the year. He was subsequently deregistered, with Knight coming in through the door to replace the Samoa international.
What might make re-signing Sao even more of an option is the injury Herman Ese’ese suffered last time out against Leeds Rhinos. Ese’ese ruptured his Achilles in that game and is now set for a lengthy lay-off.
Best case scenario, Ese’ese will be sidelined for six months, but it could be eight or potentially even longer, which would eat significantly into next season. Giving themselves another option through the middle, might just make a lot of sense for the Black and Whites then now.
The question of how Hull plan to fill the vacant quota spot was put to Cartwright during his press conference on Thursday afternoon, with the head coach insisting the club haven’t acted yet.
“All of those things will happen, but it’s about Jordan at the moment,” Cartwright told the media.
“It’s out in the open now and he’s been thinking about it for a long time, but out of respect for Jordan, we haven’t done anything. We’ve been waiting for that decision and it’s there now. Outside of that, we haven’t thought any deeper.”
Indeed, Hull FC would love to add a strike centre from Down Under to really give them the edge they need to kick on, but it might just make more sense to think about their middle unit, which could be down to the bare bones this week, with Knight already out and Liam Watts and Sam Eseh carrying injuries.
