Hull RUFC take on Taunton on Saturday at Chants Ave still looking for their first win of the season. A seventh successive loss was picked up at Plymouth last weekend when the home side won 45-5. It could have been so much different had Hull’s game management been better in their last home game against Leeds Tykes when in the closing stages, they turned down the chance to kick a penalty to go 25-22 up and instead opted to kick for the corner. Nothing came from that set piece and moments later, the visitors sealed the win with an unconverted try. It was a hard loss to take, but director of rugby Gary Pearce revealed he and his players have discussed game management going forward.
“We’ve talked about that incident against Leeds,” Pearce said.
“We passed the message on to go for three points, but the captain decided to kick to the corner.
“Everyone knows we should have gone for kick, but it was a hard lesson to learn because that was a game we should have won.
“We can’t dwell on it and in future those messages will be listened to.
“Against Leeds, we showed we can play at this level and last week’s score in Plymouth flattered the home side.
“We had four excellent catch-and-drives, two tries called back for forward passes and a couple of chances where we should have passed, but we didn’t.
“We also gifted Plymouth two tries and we know we should have done better.
“The lads are very upbeat and we feel Saturday is a game we can win at home.
“We are improving as a team even if the results don’t show that.
“We need to get that first win and the smiles will be back on the players’ faces.”
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