'Flat' Hull FC see unbeaten start halted by Catalans Dragons

The Black and Whites had started their season with wins over Castleford and Leeds but they came unstuck against the French side.

The Dragons maintained their perfect start to the season as they went over for six tries through Tom Johnstone, Paul Seguier, Mickael Goudemand, Siua Taukeiaho, Adam Keighran and Ben Garcia.

Hull’s only response came through Andre Savelio, pictured, late on.

“They were good from the start but they didn’t have to be great,” said Smith. “We were flat as a pancake and they carried out their plan. They’re very good, they know how to play when they get their noses in front and they play at their speed once they get ahead. It’s really hard to get a foothold in particularly when you’re making as many errors as we did tonight with poor defensive reads and poor defensive contacts.

“Our hit and stick was way off tonight.

“We would have liked to have made a better fist of tonight. I’m still getting to know the players and their combinations. We’ve got some new players in there still getting to know each other.

“We would have liked to have made a better fist of tonight’s game but you learn something every time you play and we certainly learned something tonight.

“We’re a long way off, and we definitely were tonight. We didn’t handle the game and the occasion right and we’ll learn many lessons from it.

“It will toughen us up and sometimes the hardest lessons provide the best outcomes. Today was a tough one for us to handle.

“Our defence hasn’t been strong enough and it was shown up today, so much that we need to do something pretty drastic about it.”

Catalans Dragons: Mourgue, Davies, Keighran, Romano, Johnstone, May, Rouge, Garcia, Seguier, McMeeken, Bousquet, McIlorum, Navarrete. Replacements: Goudemand, Chan, Taukeiaho, Dezaria.

Hull: Hoy, Swift, Sutcliffe, Scott, McIntosh, McNamara, Clifford, Evans, Dwyer, Satae, Griffin, Lane, Fash. Replacements: Brown, Lovodua, Sao, Savelio.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths (RFL)