Patience is the key to turning around Hull fortunes

They head to Wakefield Trinity tomorrow with question marks raised about their stamina and mental fortitude after letting leads vanish in consecutive fixtures.

Hull squandered an advantage with the last play to lose to Hull KR at ‘Magic Weekend’ and St Helens forced a draw in Sunday’s final moments at KC Stadium.

Gentle said: “We are aware that we have let some points slip late in games over the past few weeks but it’s not something we have focused on.

“There are more important things that we are either doing or not doing earlier in games that are having more of an impact on results.

“It’s probably more to do with a lack of patience and composure than anything. We’ve lost our way a little bit in games in recent weeks and we haven’t been sticking to the game plan.

“We’ve gone away from the things we have been doing in training and I’m more concerned about getting that right than what has happened in the last few minutes of our matches.

“We are confident that if we get it right for the first 78 minutes, we won’t be in a position to lose the game late on.”

It is certainly something he will be needing to remedy if Hull are to keep pace with the front-runners as the race towards the play-offs builds.

However, the talent at his disposal is unquestionable, highlighted by the number of players selected for international duty this week.

Goal-kicking second-row Danny Tickle has flourished of late and, after an unexpected England call, is in line to appear against the Exiles a week today.

Tom Briscoe retains his England place while Willie Manu has been selected for the opponents who consist of Super League’s finest overseas talent.

Hooker Danny Houghton is in the England Knights squad to face Ireland and Gentle admitted: “They’ve all deserved it, none of them more so than the others.

“They have all worked hard and been consistent, so it’s nice to see them get the rewards for that.

“Danny (Tickle) has been very strong for us this year and for us to have two back-rows called up is probably testament to how good our pack has been for us.”

Hull’s game at Leeds on Friday, July 6 has been chosen for Sky Sports broadcast.