Hull win doesn't fool Gentle

Peter Gentle still had plenty to mull over after Hull FC put their opening-night misery behind them to win 28-12 at home to Bradford on Sunday.

The Black and Whites were dismal in a 36-6 Super League loss at Leeds last Friday, failing to live up to their billing as title challengers, but victory over the Bulls at least allowed them to get some points on the board.

They outscored Bradford by five tries to two in a rerun of the game which was meant to take place on Friday before an accident closed the M62, preventing players from getting to the ground - opening up through ex-Bull Jason Crookes three minutes in and not looking back.

They were particularly in impressive when defending their own line, frustrating their opponents who frequently lost patience on the last tackle, but Gentle was not willing to get carried away.

"We were solid for long periods and we soaked up a lot of pressure. To have kept them to nil at half-time was very impressive," he said.

"But the tries we let in were soft in the context of the game, we needed to put it to bed. We need to keep our foot on team's throats."

Gentle's response to the Leeds loss was to drop Australian half-back Brett Seymour and send centre Joe Arundel to York. Veteran Richard Horne replaced the former and rolled back the years, excelling alongside 12-point Daniel Holdsworth.

"The halves went alright today," Gentle added. "We will sort things through. Brett Seymour was sitting in the stands to have a look with us. We made changes in a few positions but the players will be back.

"But we have to learn, we are learning some tough lessons. We now have a quick turnaround to our game at St Helens on Friday and, without taking anything away from Bradford, if we give St Helens as much ball....

"We have to earn the right to play some football. We've been doing some special things in training but in games we're pushing things that aren't quite there."

Gentle also added he will have a definitive answer about captain Gareth Ellis' foot injury on Tuesday.

The result was a rude awakening for Bradford after their new dawn started successfully with a 40-point win at home to Wakefield last Sunday.

Coach Francis Cummins was not too down, though, crediting his side for sticking with their hosts having initially been 22-0 down.

"It was not the result I wanted," he said.

"The lads worked hard but we got dominated early on and allowed Hull to play the way they have trained. But we did well to fight back after losing Michael Platt to concussion.

"We didn't always make the right decisions but I am happy with how we came back. Hull defended well but we have to take the positives, which were we looked dangerous at times."

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