“We’re a bit…” – Hull FC boss explains what is going wrong

Hull FC have conceded 104 points in their last two games in a fortnight that has now seen Tony Smith’s side drop to 10th in the league and out of the Challenge Cup.

When pressed on what hope the club has, Tony Smith explained what is going against the Black and Whites at the minute.

He said on BBC Radio Humberside: “In some, but not in all. Not in all. Some are doing it tough at the moment. Some are a bit tired at the moment. Some are at where they need some rest if they can, and relief of some of that pressure at the moment.

“We’ve got some young people in there that it would be more ideal for them not to have to play week in and week out at the moment, that we could freshen up and rotate around, but we’re not in that position at the moment.

“We’ll get through this when we get some more troops back. We can then relieve some people of some of that pressure at certain times and give them a taste of it from time to time, but then relieve them of some of that pressure.”

Tony Smith reflects on what is going wrong

Asked: “Is this Hull side mentally weak or is it just the situation that you’re in at the moment?”

Smith reflected on what is going wrong saying: “We need to toughen up across the board. We need to make sure that we’re doing our own jobs and doing them really well, and that means taking responsibility for it.

“At the moment, we know it’s not good enough and we know we have to toughen up. We need to get more determined. If that means that we’re not strong enough at the moment in a lot of facets of the game, physically and mentally.

“Some of our tackling isn’t good enough. We’re allowing players to run through us or run to another player and be tackled and we’re not winning that ruck area as much as we need to in order to compete.”

Tony Smith provides injury update

Smith also provided an injury update on former Leeds Rhinos winger Liam Tindall: “He jarred his knee in warm up and it was a bit of touch and go whether he was going to end up starting that match. He said he was okay so we went with that.

“I thought he looked a bit distracted from some aspects of his game there and when we had the head bin replacement there we decided to be on the safe side with Liam’s knee rather than put him under that sort of pressure to go out there and not be quite right.”

On other injuries: “None that I’m aware of. Bruised and battered in terms of the emotions and our pride but we need to, as I say, toughen that up and dust ourselves off and get ready for another big one next week.”