Hull FC put in a dour first-half performance that left them with too much to do as they fell short in their comeback against Leigh Leopards, with coach Andy Last admitting that it was a game of two halves.
The Leopards led 28-0 at halftime and at that point, you feared that records could tumble with Hull FC looking well off the pace, however, they fought back bravely.
Harvey Barron scored the first on 48 minutes with Cade Cust and Lennon Clark also crossing over to make it 28-16 with over 20 minutes to play. Leigh then went down to twelve but they proved resilient and managed to hold out, adding another before a late consolation for the hosts for a final score of 32-22.
Having slipped to such a heavy deficit, Last revealed what he said at half time, telling Sky Sports: “I challenged them with the worst thing you can challenge a professional Super League team with, which is their character.
“Have you got the grit and the determination and the character for the fight? Because that first 40 minutes, it just wasn’t there. We made errors, we forced Leigh into a real position of comfort because we couldn’t build any pressure, and then we gave away penalties cheaply, and they punished us, every error we made they punished us.”
He added: “We weren’t prepared to have to bend our backs and dig in and work our way out of trouble so I spoke at half-time and we showed in that second half when you get the fundamentals right, which is completing sets, kicking the ball well, and defending with a little bit of steel, you can challenge teams in the second half.
“I’m really disappointed with the first 40 but the lads obviously responded to the half-time of the challenge and did a far better job in that second half.”
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Hull FC offered hope ahead of derby
Whilst he was of course glad to see a response in the second half, he admitted that it just added to the frustration as it highlighted what his team was capable of, had they started the right way.
“Very frustrating,” he admitted.
“I spoke last week about them playing for 20 minutes just before half-time, and then today we’ve played well for 40 minutes in the second half. Obviously, Leigh were well in front at half-time and probably took the foot off the gas a little bit, but we got some momentum and we played some good attacking rugby and posed Leigh lots of problems, we just need to find it for 80 minutes.
“We’ve all been a little bit low on confidence, the results have gone against us in the last few weeks, but there’s little bits in there which do give you hope, and that 40 minutes will give us hope moving into Thursday’s game.”
Thursday’s game is of course against Hull KR in the derby and both sides will enter on the back of defeat’s with the Robins having lost to Warrington Wolves earlier in the day.
Looking ahead, Last admitted: “Finishing the game as we did, it gives us a little bit of confidence, and obviously we’ve caused Leigh some problems, and they’re a good side, and we’ll take some confidence into Thursday’s game.”
He also highlighted academy product Lennon Clark as another reason to be positive: “He’s been really good for us, Lenny, over the course of probably eight weeks, he’s got some first-team opportunities and he’s done a great job.
“I celebrated that try because it’s great for Lenny, his home debut to score in front of all his family and friends, it’s a great moment for him, but just disappointing that it wasn’t part of a winning performance.”
.@LeighLeopardsRL hold off a second half fightback to make it four consecutive #SuperLeague victories 🐆 pic.twitter.com/bldRsDPUAw
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) July 18, 2026
