‘It’s such a tough time for us’

Fetuli Talanoa admits Hull FC’S club record ten-game losing streak is one of the toughest periods of his own career. The 30-year-old has enjoyed the highs of playing in the NRL for South Sydney Rabbitohs and winning Challenge Cup finals with the Black and Whites, but this bad run has brought the barnstorming winger back down to earth.

Talanoa and his team-mates are lacking confidence and he is frank and honest when describing what the team morale is like after a 26-20 defeat against Catalans Dragons on Saturday.

“This has been one of the toughest situations in my career,” Talanoa told the Mail. “It’s one of those things when we are looking for the positives to keep ourselves high for turning up.

“It gets hard at times when you turn up at training. You start doubting yourself and it’s hard to get that team morale when it’s at a low. This eights tournament for us has been really tough.”

The worst aspect of Hull’s latest defeat for Talanoa was the fact that the sweet taste of victory was so agonisingly close.

FC led 20-16 in the final ten minutes before Catalans pulled away thanks to late scores from Brayden Wiliame and Kenny Edwards, something which left Talanoa disappointed.

“I felt like we had it but then it just got taken away on the next couple of sets. It’s really disappointing,” Talanoa added.

“To finally feel that we had a chance to win a game when we got ahead, it was a feeling we haven’t felt at all during the Super 8s. It was a high. Some of the tries late in the second half were just running right through the players.

“For us what’s done is done now and we have to now focus on the last game of the season at Wigan Warriors this Friday.”