Hull travel to Billingham on Saturday to take on a side that started the season quite well, but who have now seen a dip in form and sit second to bottom of the league.
Billingham have only won four games so far and last week drew 38-38 away at Hull Ionians. Their record may not be that good but they are clearly still capable of scoring points.
Billingham will be determined to ease above third from bottom Hull Ionians, whom they trail by a point, so they will undoubtedly throw everything at Hull in front of their own supporters.
Hull will have a largely unchanged side from the one that achieved last week’s remarkable victory over Preston which demonstrated the enthusiasm and resilience of the side as they overturned a 19-3 deficit to win a high-scoring game.
Latu Makaafi is unavailable so Alex Renouf comes into the second row. The bench sees Charlie Beech, Kaminieli Tuvotu, Harvey Harding and Dan McDougall complete the selections with the final place on the bench to be decided closer to kick-off.
Whilst the plaudits last week went to James Naylor for his brilliant display at scrum-half and Bureta Faraimo for his great hat-trick of tries, it was full-back Reece Dean’s second half trio of of penalties that were as important in easing Hull into a more comfortable position on the scoreboard and his goal kicking will be an important factor again this week.
Every game throws up a different set of challenges, but with Hull’s lineout improvement and solid scrum they have the all-round talent and points scoring ability to add to their eight victory tally.
It will be a close game and good discipline could be vital in determining the outcome.
Photo by Dave Winn (@dmwphoto_74)
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