Three more players injured as depleted Hull FC put up brave fight in defeat to Catalans Dragons

The depleted Airlie Birds battled gamely in defeat which Smith was proud of, but he is concerned at the club’s rising injury toll.

With a dozen players out through injury or suspension, Hull picked up further knocks with a torn pectoral muscle for Matty Russell and hamstring problems for Jack Walker and Carlos Tuimavave.

“We’re doing it tough and it seems we’re going to do it tougher,” said coach Smith.

“I’m proud of the spirit we showed against a very good Catalans side, but we can’t keep continuing to make mistakes and invite the opposition. We lost two wingers, had so many bumps and bangs, and we throw in yet another sin-binning. We’re killing ourselves.

“We’re conceding far too many penalties and letting the opposition out of their own half too often and too easily and it’s costing us.

“We’re in a scrap again and we get another sin-bin again against one of the best teams in the competition and, while we showed a lot of spirit once again, we need to be smarter.

“We’re playing tough and it catches up on you in the back end of games and teams like Catalans will score some points on you.

“I’m pleased with the way we’re scrapping, there’s character there but we’ve got to keep players on the park. It’s backs to the wall and dig-deep time.

“We gave Catalans a good start, we need to start better and then dig deep so we’ll learn the lessons from that.

“We’re working hard on discipline and trying to change technique, but it’s always tough to come here and win anything.”

Catalans went ahead with an early try for Jayden Nikorima, with Matthieu Laguerre extending the lead before Hull hit back through scrum-half Fa’amanu Brown to make it 14-6 at half-time.

Walker struck first for the visitors in the second half after he collected a bizarre off-the-head knock forward from Tuimavave, but the Dragons had too much in the end and tries for Tom Davies, pictured, and Arthur Mourgue provided the coup de gras.

Catalans coach Steve McNamara said: “That was a tough game in unusually wet and heavy conditions, and the players on both sides are feeling the effects tonight. Jayden (Nikorima) has pulled a hamstring, Chris Satae passed his HIA at half-time, but the medical staff thought it best to keep him off for the rest of the game. Alrix Da Costa has failed a concussion test and we’ve got so many players in that dressing room with tightness and strains – the downpour affected that game so much.

“Hull put us under pressure and were in the ascendancy at times, but we found the strength to finish them off and that is a good sign for us going forward.

“We’ve had back-to-back away trips and we had to rest the players a little. We needed to respond tonight following the defeat at Leeds and we did.”​​​​​​​