Simon Grix is hoping his Hull FC side can take some confidence out of last weekend’s 24-22 victory over Wigan Warriors, having stuck to a specific game plan to earn their third win of the Super League season.
Playing with movement and repetition, Hull were brave with the ball, moving it beyond Wigan’s A/B/C defenders and chancing their arm. And when they got into attacking situations, they stuck to their plays, with Grix now aiming to go up a couple of gears against Catalans Dragons this Saturday evening.
Heading to Perpignan for the second time this year, Hull, naturally buoyed by a season-best account, will now aim to stick to their plan again, with some natural tweaks and fixups ahead of what is another tough task against a ‘Wigan-like’ opponent.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Grix said: “My hope is that the players can take confidence from last week. Everyone can say Wigan weren’t at their best; they made errors and all of those things, but I like to think we played a part in them not playing at their best.
“We did what we practiced, and we saw the benefits of that. We can tweak things from week to week depending on what’s in front of us, but hopefully, because of the positive experience of applying what we practiced, we can kick on with that now. It’s not a magic formula, but it worked last weekend, and if it can work against teams like Wigan, then I’m sure it will work against many more.
“This week is another test for us, and it’s another Wigan-like team. Catalans are big and direct, and they come at you through the middle of the field. You’ve got to be tough enough to stand up to that. We did for large parts last week, but there were also parts in that game where we were scrambling not only on our try line or saving breaks, but scrambling to get to our line.
“That’s something we’ve worked on this week—our first contact. If we can get that bit right, it will give us more of a chance to have a settled line to negate their biggest threats. They’ve got some big boys, they’ve got a great kicking game, and they’ve certainly got some threat on their edges.
“We’ll be up against it again, but that’s the challenge now. We want to go back-to-back and keep building. If we can play with that sort of confidence and belief in each other and keep turning up, then I’m sure we’ll give ourselves a chance. We need to try and stick to what’s been good for us.”
Coming back into training with a spring in their step, Hull have had a positive week’s work, but they know they have to still look to impress. As well as some first contact to tighten up, Hull know they have to be smarter still with the ball, having passed up further opportunities to extend their lead against Wigan last week.
“We can’t just look at the good,” Grix added. “There’s some ugly stuff we need to look at. But generally, everyone is happy after a win, and everyone comes back feeling a little bit better about themselves. There’s not too many red faces when it’s on the screen in review, but more pats on the back.
“We look a bit taller now. It’s just nice going into work off the back of a win. It’s not the end of the world after a loss, depending on the manner of the loss. If you’re performing well, generally the mood is better, even if the frustration is still there if you’re performing well and not getting the wins.
“We’ve done okay in our last few but lost by pretty tight margins. We were frustrated after those, but we were still positive about what we were doing. The last few weeks have definitely been better.”
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