Hull FC fired up after week off

Hull FC coach Peter Gentle expects his side to overcome Leeds on Saturday after giving his side four days off last weekend.

The Black and Whites were knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the fourth round by Huddersfield and did not play last weekend, while nine of their Super League rivals had to overcome their opponents on the road to Wembley.

But Gentle said the rest should help his player in the long run.

He said: “We had a lot of players having to play a lot of minutes in the space of three of four weeks, so we’ve made the most of the time we’ve had since the Wigan game.

“We’ve freshened the team up last week, worked on a few things on the training field and then given some of our senior blokes three or four days off.

“Some of the injured lads were in to make up for a bit of lost time, so the schedule has been different for each individual, but we’ve really tried to put some energy back into their legs.”

Gentle insists his side are now solely focused on climbing the Super League ladder, and with Hull FC currently the highest placed side in the league to have been knocked out of the Challenge Cup, he has had more than enough time to plan how the Airlie Birds will overcome the Rhinos.

He said: “Leeds have been through a bit of a tough patch, but they’ve come through that and are playing their way into some form.” 

“Good sides can do that and we’d like to think of ourselves as a good team, so it’s down to us to do the same. 

“Over the next five weeks, we should hopefully have all of our injured players back. We understand we will probably lose a couple of guys in that period too, but as it stands we don’t have anybody with a season ending injury and we can go into the second half of the season feeling fit and fresh.”