Hull Daily Mail

Derby lessons learnt as Last prepares FC for Wire test

- By WILLIAM JACKSON william.jackson@reachplc.com @Williamj93

ANDY Last insists he’s learnt from the mistakes he made in the build-up to Hull FC’S derby clash with Hull KR.

The Black and Whites’ interim head coach believes he pushed his side too hard before taking on the Robins, which meant Hull struggled to pull away from their cross-city rivals in the opening 30 minutes at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

FC still picked up a convincing win to cement sixth place in the Super League table and secure a spot in the restructur­ed play-offs, which begin on Thursday night for FC.

However, as he prepares his side for the challenges of knockout rugby league, Last thinks he has to do things a little differentl­y this time around.

“You have to make sure that you don’t do much at this time of year,” Last said when asked how his side will prepare for the playoffs.

“I probably got it wrong a little bit leading into the Rovers game, we probably did a little bit too much leading into that game and I felt that impacted on the energy we started with and we got to grips with it in the second half.

“I’ve got to make sure I get it right and use the experience of the staff around me, their knowledge of the physical side of it and the sports science side of it and making sure we get that balance right between getting enough done but not doing so much that it takes energy out of them. It’s going to be important that you’ve got that energy to play and that’s the biggest challenge that they present, you’ve got to be able to match them up for the full 80 minutes.”

The Black and Whites have made big improvemen­ts in the last few weeks, with four wins coming in the last five games as things begin to click under Last.

As such, the 39-year-old is keen to see how his confident side hold up against a team tipped by many to reach the Grand Final.

“It’s a good challenge to face and it’s one I’m looking forward to from my own point of view and seeing where this team have actually progressed to,” he added.

“We’ve had some good performanc­es and results against teams that maybe weren’t in the best of form whereas this is a whole new level in terms of competitio­n and it will be good to see where we’re at against a blue chip team.”

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