Hastings ensures Reds win survival battle
HULL FC football manager Gareth Ellis has urged their struggling side to simply deliver a performance tonight that offers encouragement for 2019.
They are on the back of a 10game losing run and desperate for the season to draw to a close when they arrive at Wigan Warriors.
In contrast, their hosts have won all six of their Super 8s games so far and have a home semi-final against Castleford Tigers to look forward to in a week’s time.
While injuries have ravaged Hull’s squad, Ellis admitted: “What we want from this last game is to put all the technicals aside.
“The one thing that is required from our players is effort and energy.
“Regardless of whether you’ve played one Super League game or 300, those expectations never change. That’s what we expect from them.
“I said to them this morning I just want to come off that field knowing we’ve given it our all.
“Give us just that little glimpse of that only 12 months ago we were a very, very good team. Back then, we were aiming for a Grand Final.
“And if we can just do enough to come off that field and think, with a big pre-season, there’s enough there for us to have some confidence going into next year and get back to where we want to be.”
Ellis – who led Hull to the Challenge Cup and top-four again last year before retiring – said the Black and Whites have had to name injured players to make up their 19-man squad.
Meanwhile, they have bolstered their options for 2019 with the signings of Salford Red Devils prop Levy Nzoungou and secondrow Danny Langtree from League 1 part-timers Oldham.
French front-row Nzoungou, 20, came through the ranks at St Helens before spending a season with NRL club Melbourne Storm.
The Congo-born forward then signed for Toulouse Olympique before joining up with Salford this term.
Langtree was a promising second-row in St Helens’ academy when, at just 17, he was banned for two years after testing positive for cocaine.
He returned to action with Oldham and has spent the last seven years in the lower leagues before getting this top-flight chance at Hull. SALFORD SECURED their Super League status in emphatic style with this win over gallant French side Toulouse.
Toulouse claimed the scalps of Widnes and Hull KR to take their battle for promotion to the final round of the Qualifiers but they found the Red Devils too hot to handle and they now need Halifax to win big at London on Saturday to keep their hopes alive of appearing in the Million Pound Game.
Salford, who had put themselves in jeopardy with back-toback defeats, led only 14-10 early in the second half but cut loose against a tiring Olympique defence to run in five tries in the last 22 minutes.
Greg Johnson, Niall Evalds, Derrell Olpherts, Kris Welham and Tyrone McCarthy all crossed as the hosts cut loose, with former Leeds Rhinos prop Luke Burgess – in his final game before retiring – also landing a late conversion.
Salford’s hero was Australian half-back Jackson Hastings, who returned in style from a twomatch ban to maintain his own unbeaten record in a Red Devils shirt with a sixth win from as many matches.
Hastings made his mark with the game’s first try, jinking his way through the visitors’ defence in the 13th minute, moments after preventing a goal-line dropout at the other end.
Hastings, taking on the kicking duties in the absence of the injured Ed Chamberlain, also landed seven goals including one for a penalty awarded for a foul by fullback Mark Kheirallah in the act of scoring, a rare eight-point try.
Toulouse replied through winger Chris Centrone and when scrum-half Stan Robin touched down early in the second half for a try improved by Mark Kheirallah, they only trailed by four. But Salford’s experience ultimately told.