IT NEVER rains but it pours for Hull FC coach Tony Smith, who lost a string of players to injuries in the torrential rain of Perpignan on Saturday night.
The embattled black and whites’ chief faces serious selection headaches this week after winger Matty Russell, fullback Jack Walker and hooker Danny Houghton had to leave the field at a sodden Stade Gilbert Brutus and there may be disciplinary issues for Jack Ashworth, who was sinbinned for a head clash with Dragons’ prop Tevita Satae.
With up to a dozen players already out through injury or suspension, Hull will have to dig deeper than ever to field a competitive side to face Leigh Leopards at the MKM Stadium on Saturday.
“We’re doing it tough, and it seems we’re going to do it tougher,” coach Smith told League Express.
“We’ve picked up another couple of injuries, Matty has torn a pec (pectoral muscle) and it doesn’t look good.
“We put Jack Walker out onto the wing but then he tweaked his hamstring while scoring his try. You don’t usually account for two subs on wingers but that’s where we are at the moment, it’s backs to the wall and dig deep.
“Added to that, Danny Houghton had to come off because he felt his hamstrings tighten so we’ll get him checked out as soon as possible.
“I’m not sure what shape we are in just yet for the Leigh game, we’ll have to assess things back in Hull. We’ve got a couple of players coming back from injury but we picked up some more tonight, it’s not great news.”
Smith was pleased with his team’s spirit against the Dragons but remains concerned about disciplinary issues, which have seen cards issued against his players in every game so far this season.
He added: “We’re conceding far too many penalties and letting the opposition out of their own half too often and too easily and it’s costing us.
“We’re in a scrap again and we get another sin-bin again against one of the best teams in the competition. While we showed a lot of spirit, once again we need to be smarter. We can’t keep making mistakes and gifting the opposition.
“I’m pleased with the way we’re scrapping, there’s character there but we’ve got to keep players on the park.”
At training this week Smith will be focusing on his side’s inability to start games strongly so far this season, and he added: “Catalans’ first try, in the first minute, was a soft one from us, our marker got called not square and instead of giving away a penalty he opted not to take the tackle, which is a bit of inexperience on our account, he’d have been better making the tackle, conceding a penalty and not conceding a try.
“It gifted our opponents with a good start and that’s a problem we have at the moment, we’re not getting off to great starts and then digging deep for the rest of the game and we have to learn lessons from that.”
