On these guys we place our hopes for 2017!!!
So after such an auspicious and quite spectacular start to ‘2017 The Year of Culture’ in the City of Kingston upon Hull, Hull FC yesterday did their bit towards carrying that forward and made their own bit of history as the first Club to host a game against the first truly Trans-Atlantic sports team.
To quote the rather irritating practice of local and national newspapers of late, here are the five things I learned from yesterday afternoons run out against the Toronto Wolfpack.
Firstly, we all found out I think that the RL, (in their rush to appease Bradford by re-instating the Bulls into the Championship with a team that’s still in disarray and with less than two weeks to go to the season starting) really have missed a trick. This Toronto side, with their devil may care approach, would be a real force in the Championship and would have brought a bit of real razzamatazz and a great competitive spirit to the competition. Secondly we also had it confirmed that Albert Kelly is, (providing that he keeps his ‘nose clean’), going to be a real FC star and his signing could well prove to be the best bit of business in Super League this year. Yesterday he finished brilliantly as good a try as we’ll see all season.
Thirdly, the youngsters showed in the last quarter that despite what we thought we learned about them at Castleford and against Rovers, they can tackle and for the final 22 or so minutes they defended magnificently and force the opposition to chance their arm and lose possession a time or two. Fourthly, if the Canadians wanted a run out in conditions akin to those of their country of origin, then they couldn’t have picked a better day; it was bloody perishing! However, they still played some lovely expansive rugby in that first half. And fifthly I think our attacking combinations looked really promising and if we can get them the ball early, our backs are going to be absolutely deadly this coming season.