{"id":441251,"date":"2026-02-23T13:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441251\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T13:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:34:10","slug":"hull-fcs-one-positive-wigan-takeaway-as-new-recruits-assessed-and-spine-call-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441251\/","title":{"rendered":"Hull FC\u2019s one positive Wigan takeaway as new recruits assessed and spine call explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a solid start to his Hull career.<\/p>\n

05:00, 23 Feb 2026Updated 08:36, 23 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

\"Hull<\/p>\n

Hull FC centre Arthur Romano. (Image: Dave Loftouse, Hull FC)<\/p>\n

Hull FC were dominated at Wigan Warriors on Saturday night in what was tough going at the Brick Community Stadium. However, one player stood tall despite the nature of the 34-6 defeat: Arthur Romano.<\/p>\n

Taking the limited positives out of the loss, head coach John Cartwright praised the Frenchman for a gutsy display, with the centre carrying the ball strong and busy with his workload despite the Wigan onslaught that saw them put a stranglehold on Hull from the get-go and never relinquish that control.<\/p>\n

But Romano \u2013 one of eight new recruits for the 2026 season \u2013 certainly stood up and added to the promise he\u2019s shown in all trial, league and cup matches for Hull so far this year, with the 28-year-old, who has played both back row and centre, one of the side\u2019s best performers in all of the five run-outs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played great,\u201d Cartwright told Hull Live post-match. \u201cHe put his body on the line. He\u2019s done that all year in the few games that we\u2019ve played. Whenever things have got tough, he\u2019s always been there to put his hand up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever you ask him to do, he does it. If you asked him to play front row, he\u2019d do it for you. He\u2019s going to be a good addition to the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cartwright also praised Connor Bailey after his first Super League appearance for the club. The versatile former York Knights player came on in the second half, playing at loose-forward in place of Yusuf Aydin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough task going out there when the side is going backwards,\u201d Cartwright said. \u201cBut I thought he did well. He didn\u2019t look out of place, put it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had some good carries of the ball. He brought some energy to us. I was very happy with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cartwright also explained Callum Kemp\u2019s role, with the teenage half-back also coming off the bench late in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was there for cover,\u201d Cartwright explained. \u201cThe middles worked so hard and they did so much defence \u2013 it was our own doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got what we deserved but they worked really hard and made lots of tackles, going backwards a lot. I was concerned with Cal going out there and having to mark (Junior) Nsemba all night. The plan was to ease him into the game but the game was gone when we got him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been a solid start to his Hull career. 05:00, 23 Feb 2026Updated 08:36, 23 Feb 2026 Hull…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134711,134710,20805,28318,5903,20370,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-441251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-arthur-romano","tag-connor-bailey","tag-hull-fc","tag-john-cartwright","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}