Rice encouraged by performance despite cup defeat

Captain Tom Rice was left encouraged by Hull’s performance at Harrogate on Saturday despite losing the Yorkshire Cup semi-final 25-10.
Hull’s plans are to return to National Two North as soon as they can and that will be their number one goal next season.
Rice knows the squad is good enough to be playing in the higher league, but they have to win promotion first.
After 40 minutes on Saturday, the sides were level at 10-10 but the game turned when Harrogate scored twice in six minutes to take the tie away from Hull.
Rice admits his side went away from the game plan given to them by coach Gary Pearce as they chased a way back into the tie.
“We’re disappointed,” Rice said.
“This is part of the learning curve for us.
“Harrogate are in National Two North and that’s where we want to be.
“We showed we can compete with them.
“Their try at the start of the second half was telling.
“We defended our kick poorly and that put us on the back foot.
“We were chasing the game after that when we needed to settle down worked on our patterns.
“We’ve got one more game left this season against Kendal and we’ll pick ourselves up for that.
“We’ll take the lessons we’ve learned from Harrogate into Saturday’s game.
“It will be easy to lift them because we want to end the season on a high.”