HULL FC head coach Tony Smith has explained where his side are going wrong following a dismal 50-6 thrashing by Huddersfield Giants in the Challenge Cup Sixth Round.
The Black and Whites were terrible as they succumbed to their fifth defeat in six games, and Smith has called on his players to toughen up – both physically and mentally.
“We need to toughen up across the board, we need to make sure we are doing our own jobs and doing them really well. That’s taking responsibility for it and we have got to do that,” Smith said.
“We know it’s not good enough, we need to get more determined and if that means we are not strong enough in a lot of facets in the game, physically and mentally, then so be it.
“Some of our tackling isn’t good enough, we are allowing players to run through us.”
Smith does have one injury concern following that game.
“Liam Tindall jarred his knee in the warm-up, he was touch-and-go if he would start the game. He said he was ok, I thought he looked a bit distracted from some aspects of his game.
“When we had the head bin replacement there, we decided to be on the safe side with Liam’s knee instead of putting him under more pressure.”
Of course, going into the derby week against Hull KR, FC players should need no motivation. And Smith has backed his chargers to rise to the challenge.
“We will need to dust ourselves and learn quickly. They are playing well and playing confidently and we are at the other end of the realm at the moment.
“It’s a good challenge for us but that’s sometimes where you see spirit and determination and people dig in. Sometimes being written off can be a good thing.
“I know there will be a lot of people writing us off and rightly so but we will see what we can do about it.”
So what is currently going wrong at FC? Smith believes continuity is a major problem.
“Confidence, changing of the team and not having the same squad out each week, making changes but we are having to go through that lack of continuity.
“We went with Nu (Brown) at hooker this week and gave Jack (Charles) some experience. Danny (Houghton) has been suffering with fatigue in his hamstring the last few games so we thought we would rest him at the start of games so he wouldn’t fatigue over that long stint.
“It was better for Danny but if we had regular form and good form where we weren’t having to change things it would definitely help but it is what it is.”
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