{"id":550131,"date":"2026-04-25T14:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T14:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/550131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T14:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T14:49:15","slug":"hull-fcs-next-steps-outlined-with-firm-message-given-and-crucial-challenge-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/550131\/","title":{"rendered":"Hull FC’s next steps outlined with firm message given and crucial challenge set"},"content":{"rendered":"

A satisfying start, but for Andy Last, all Hull FC’s focus is what they now do against Toulouse.<\/p>\n

11:00, 25 Apr 2026Updated 14:51, 25 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

\"Hull<\/p>\n

Hull FC celebrate their win at Castleford. <\/p>\n

Andy Last got the perfect start to his second stint as Hull FC<\/a> interim head coach \u2013 but his attention has already turned to backing up Friday night\u2019s win at Castleford Tigers against Toulouse Olympique next week.<\/p>\n

The Black and Whites were good value for their 50-10 win in West Yorkshire, scoring nine tries in total. But in a season where they believe they can still achieve something, they know it all counts for nothing unless they follow it up against their French opponents.<\/p>\n

Hull will be favourites when they go up against Toulouse next Sunday, and it\u2019s a tag they must relish as they look to avoid a banana skin and make it back-to-back wins. They will have the weekend off now to \u2018recover and rehab\u2019 before getting to grips with their next test on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do (have to back it up now),” Last, speaking to Hull Live, said post-match. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019ll be stressing this week. We\u2019ve got our rewards for sticking to a process and delivering a game plan and being disciplined in doing that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to think now we can come up with a plan for Toulouse and then I\u2019ll be striving for an improved performance on what we saw here. Toulouse had a tough night against York but they are a very capable team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll show them the utmost respect and I\u2019ll be striving for a week of attitude from the players and then to get a performance full of attitude once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a tough couple of weeks that have seen John Cartwright stepped down as head coach, Last was quick to praise his players for their display at Castleford, with the side unfazed by recent events and putting in their best performance of the season so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great response from the playing group,\u201d the interim head coach continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve got some quality players in there who have seen a great deal in rugby league<\/a> and who have been in these situations before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve drawn on their experiences and the likes of Aidan Sezer, our captain, were sensational. He was great in the changing room and was very good in the team run. The likes of Zak Hardaker supported him and that\u2019s what you want from your senior players: to give that guidance and that experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cZak spoke just before we went out and he said, ‘If we get enough of us 1-17 as an 8\/10 performance, we\u2019ll win the game,’ and I thought 1-17 we were 8\/10 and then there were a couple 9\/10 and arguably some were 10\/10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve shown we are more than capable of beating anyone in this competition. We just have to consistently put the performances together and that was as good a performance as I\u2019ve seen from us this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be challenging the players to get back to those levels against Toulouse but this week has shown that there is a real deep connection in the group that has been built over the last 18 months. We just need to continue that spirit and connection and keep backing it up with performances that you saw here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a good team when we put it together and I thought we showed what we are capable of and how we can score some points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joking on the reality of his situation, which will see Steve McNamara come in as head coach and Last moving back to assistant, he laughed: \u201cOne down. 18 to go. I can\u2019t wait for that. I\u2019m just on countdown. Any problems Steve can deal with them next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one game at a time. We\u2019ve had a great night tonight. We’ll enjoy the weekend, and, then it\u2019s all guns blazing and onto Toulouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the opportunity to take a breath now. Last week, we were in Sunday, and we had a big meeting on Tuesday. There’s been a lot of noise around the club over the last two weeks and it\u2019s nice to get back to the week-to-week grind of performing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll give them the weekend off now to recover and relax and we\u2019ll make sure they\u2019re ready to come in and train again on Monday.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A satisfying start, but for Andy Last, all Hull FC’s focus is what they now do against Toulouse.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[186549,20805,5903,20370,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-550131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-andy-last","9":"tag-hull-fc","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-rugby-league","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550131","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=550131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}