Hull FC coach Andy Last - ‘It’s not a season for ideals’

The Airlie Birds only found out they would be playing at Emerald Headingley late on Wednesday evening after Leeds’ planned opponents Castleford Tigers pulled out for Covid-related reasons.

But, despite missing 13 players, Hull built a 10-0 lead against the Challenge Cup finalists and also trailed by just six points in the final quarter before eventually slipping to a 40-22 defeat.

Asked what it was like as a head coach trying to prepare, Last said: “Absolutely crazy.

“You talk about whirlwinds and there was some storm that came into England last week.

“It felt like a storm hit us on Wednesday. From 8 o’clock in the morning until half-past 11 that night there were things going on.

“It felt like my mobile phone was permanently into my ear communicating with the CEO, members of staff, the players and trying to do the best thing for the game and for the team.

“It wasn’t ideal preparation but it’s not a year for ideals. It’s a case of making the best we can and I thought we did a great job. The effort was great and we gave a good account of ourselves.”

Last continued: “The staff did a brilliant job behind the scenes.

“We managed to still get a preview together from a game-plan point of view, which was delivered to the players in the morning; we did a walk through and I’m immensely proud of the players.

“I’m just disappointed as there was a period where I thought ‘we’re going to get these’ and we just didn’t come up with the right decisions in those key periods.

“Unfortunately, Bureta (Faraimo) didn’t take that chance in the corner off Marc Sneyd’s kick to make it 16-0 and our bench didn’t have its usual impact either.”

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James Mitchinson