JOHN CARTWRIGHT hailed Hull FC’s new signings after they inspired a stunning victory at Catalans.
Coach Cartwright said after the match: “I’m really excited for the players after a performance and a result like that. We’ve had a tough time of it recently as a club, coming off a rough few seasons, but we didn’t show that tonight.
“We’re a pretty new mix as a side and we came here tonight not knowing really what to expect. We prepared well and we knew we would compete.
“We probably exceeded what I thought we could do, especially in defence where I thought we were really strong.
“Field position was well against us, they kicked well and put us under pressure, we had a fair few penalties on us so it was one-way traffic in the first 30 minutes and we managed to save a few tries from them over our line.
“And of course we scored a few of our own, it’s a good sign that we can do that.
“We stress that it’s all about competing in everything we do, with or without the ball, at training, during games, and it paid off tonight.
“We were under the pump a lot in the game and our outside backs got us out of trouble on numerous occasions. We’ve got a super competitor in Cade Cust, he’s like a terrier chasing everything and Aidan Sezer kicked well and got us around the field well.
“John Asiata led with Aidan from the front and when we got some possession and field in the tank we looked pretty good.”
A disappointed Catalans coach Steve McNamara was at a loss to explain his side’s lacklustre performance, especially following a similar display the week before at Halifax in the cup and a disappointing slide towards the end of last season.
He said: “We’re clearly disappointed, I thought we started the game strongly but we got taught a lesson in how to fight and scrap for points.
“We should have scored points early on but Hull defended really well, and worked hard in-goal but at this stage of the season you have to score those opportunities.
“You win or lose games at this stage of the season in those areas.
“I thought the effort from both teams was really good, there were high completions from both teams but we got outfought in the crucial areas.
“We created opportunities but we couldn’t find the right pass or ground the ball. We need to score those chances and Hull did that, credit to them.
“The players are completely frustrated, we are disappointed in ourselves. We had some disruptions, losing Sam Tomkins and Theo Fages last week.
“We tried to get it going today but we missed our opportunities and our effort areas cost us at least one try tonight.”
