Gentle happy with rusty Hull

Hull coach Peter Gentle was proud of his team as they held off a late London fightback to win 22-14 at the KC Stadium on Sunday night.

But he admitted that the Airlie Birds looked a bit rusty, as a consequence of their postponed match against Catalan last week.

They had led 22-4 deep in to the second half, but a red card for forward Sam Moa, for a shoulder charge to Julien Rinaldi’s head, was the catalyst for a Broncos comeback, although Hull proved too strong.

Gentle told the club’s official website: “I was really proud of how the players dug in and put their hands up for the team.

“We lost a lot of momentum after missing last week and it’s difficult to get back up for a match again.

“In hindsight, not playing back-to-back matches hasn’t helped. We looked a bit rusty and we didn’t quite look as sharp as we could be.

“We still have some big improvements to make with the ball, but it will come and we can take a lot of confidence from how we are defending.”

It took 17 minutes for the deadlock to be broken in front of the SKY cameras, with Tom Briscoe crossing for the game’s opening try, which was cancelled out shortly after by Michael Robertson.

Joe Westerman then injured himself in the process of scoring Hull’s second try, but Wade McKinnon‘s score gave Hull a 16-4 half time advantage.

Kirk Yeaman‘s try eight minutes in to the second half gave Hull a secure cushion, and despite Moa’s dismissal on the hour mark, they were able to hold off late scores from Luke Dorn and Chris Melling to take the two points.