Hull were beaten by Rovers’ ruck speed says Radford

Hull FC coach Lee Radford was pleased with the effort his team showed in their 38-24 defeat, at Magic Weekend, to rivals Hull KR.

He felt that the Rovers speed around the ruck, generated mainly by the outstanding Josh Hodgson, was key to his team losing the game.

“I thought the actual effort when we went down to 12 was fantastic,” Radford told reporters after the game.

“There’s no qualms though. We played them three weeks ago at the KC Lightstream, and we said their ruck speed was really damaging to us.

“We allowed Josh Hodgson to jump out from dummy half and cause some real problems.

“We spoke about it all week, and worked on it, but it was just a replica of that in the first 40 minutes here.

“I thought they really punished us in that area.”

Radford also felt that Rovers made the most of it when the momentum of the game was in their favour.

“It was a typical derby,” he added.

“But their extra quality showed through a little bit today, and they punished us.

“I got asked before the game how do you win a derby, and I answered that when the pendulum is swinging your way, you really have to make the most of it.

“They had a real chunk of that in the first half. Second half it swung back our way. I thought we were going to jump on the back end of that momentum.

“But it just wasn’t to be.”