Hodgson hails Gale’s reaction

BRETT Hodgson has been delighted with the way Hull FC skipper Luke Gale has responded to last week’s omission against St Helens.

After completing a two-game suspension, Gale was eligible to be involved last Friday at the Totally Wicked Stadium but was purposely overlooked by the Black and Whites head coach.

However, after watching FC turn in a clunky performance against the champions, Hodgson admitted his side may have posed more of a threat had Gale been in the side.

As such, it seems the England international could be set to make a return to action as Hull host Wigan Warriors at the MKM Stadium today.

Hodgson was, of course, unwilling to go into detail about his selection for today during his pre-match press conference, but he did praise the reaction he has seen from his captain over the last few days.

“He is part of the conversations,” Hodgson said when asked about Gale. “He is available, as is Josh Reynolds.

“We’ve had our conversations around how it’s going to look this weekend and Luke is obviously part of the squad.

“He’s been excellent and he understood why the decision was made last week.

“Even his contribution to our performance in training was excellent.

“We have had absolutely no problems with the way he has responded and he has given himself the chance to bounce back this weekend, which is pleasing.”

He added: “Regardless of the result, I still believe it was the best decision for us as a group.

“It shows the faith in the players that have earned the right to be there and for whatever reason that those boys fell out of the squad, injuries, suspension, whatever it is, we want to reward those who are performing well.

“Obviously we didn’t play to our potential at times last week so the other boys will obviously come back into contention.”

The Super League season is only 12 games old but Hodgson has already named six different half-back combinations due to injury, suspension or just poor form of individuals.

As such, he’s keen to finally build up some consistency in the pivots over the coming weeks and months.

“It is important and I know that some of that is my own choosing based on the decisions made around team selection and some of it is based on injuries, suspensions and alike,” he added.

“Ideally we’d like to get a little bit of continuity there.

“We’d like to have it set that they’re playing consistently well and we get results constantly, but some of that reasoning has been out of my hands.

“We’ll look to progress from now but there’s still plenty of games left in the competition and plenty of time to work on what is our best spine.”