‘A better performance than when we beat Leigh’ says proud Hull coach Brett Hodgson

The Black and Whites ran in 12 tries at the winless Centurions last weekend in a comprehensive 64-22 success but were made to work hard for their 17-10 home win on Friday.

An ill-disciplined first half saw Hull trail 10-0 at the break after Olly Ashall-Bott’s try and two Oliver Russell penalties put Huddersfield in front.

However, Russell was sin-binned for a trip on Connor Wynne as the half-time hooter sounded and Hull grabbed the first of three tries in 13 second-half minutes while the half-back was on the sidelines.

Mahe Fonua, Jack Logan and Wynne also touched down before Marc Sneyd added a late drop-goal to seal their seventh league win of the season.

And Hodgson, who had three players involved in England’s one-off international with Combined Nations All Stars in addition to a spate of injuries, was impressed with Hull’s efforts.

“I like to suggest that is a better one than last week’s (win),” he said.

“We had so much adversity going into this week, like Huddersfield and other clubs have had as well.

“I thought we were pretty poor in the first half but I thought the way we came back in that second half was outstanding, I’m really proud of the group.”

Huddersfield boss Ian Watson could not fault his side’s effort after he was without five first-team players due to international commitments before losing Darnell MacIntosh to a suspected Achilles injury.

He said: “That team was thrown together over two days, they more or less had two training sessions.

“Our attitude and effort was outstanding and I think we lost a bit of momentum and didn’t really get field position that we wanted.”

“We know if we are going to win games, we know we have to defend well to give ourselves a shot because there are that many changes in and around our attacking game at the moment, there are new combinations every single week and it doesn’t give you any fluency when you are playing.”