Brett Hodgson has claimed the Black & Whites’ Challenge Cup quarter-final victory over Wigan Warriors was “very close” to their best possible performance.
The Airlie Birds reached the semi-finals of the competition for the fourth time in six seasons with a thrilling 20-10 victory over the Warriors, as Hull showed yet another defensively impressive performance.
A brace from Jacuzzi Elite Performance Man of the Match Chris Satae, as well as a score after the final hooter from Adam Swift, saw the Airlie Birds seal their place in the next round, leaving them just 80 minutes away from Wembley.
Speaking after the game, Hodgson said: “I think whenever you play someone like Wigan you have to be at your best and I thought we were very close to that today.
“I felt our defensive intent was superb throughout the day and we learned our lesson from last week that if you don’t have field position it’s really hard to beat them.
“Sneydy and Grub were outstanding the way they kicked to corner. It’s another step forward and thankfully we’re into the next round.”
He added: “Our discipline let us down a bit in the first half and we spoke about that at half-time, and we also spoke about them going up another level so we needed to do so to match everything they threw at us. Again, we faced adversity with Griff going off and Connor Wynne taking his chance.
“The players are showing their effort and attitude defensively with the things we’ve introduced, Wigan throw so many questions at your systems and we came up with the right answers.
“We wanted to use the emotion of the week and not shy away from it. We spoke about a few things that have happened to inspire us and as motivation, because sometimes that emotion can spill over into a lack of discipline but I felt our intent was good and our contact was good, and thankfully we’ve come through the week unscathed.
“I think if anything Wigan lost their emotion a little bit and played into our hands a bit getting frustrated with each other.”
Speaking on some of the individual performances, he continued: “Both Josh and Manu inspired the players around us and made us a better team, and any time either of them is on the field is makes us a better team.
“I thought Chris Satae was brilliant. We had to change the way we played him and play him in shorter stints and that played to his benefit today.
“We always have conversations about how to rotate our middles to get the most out of them, and with us missing Fashy, Scott Taylor, Josh Bowden as well as Masi that meant we needed to use Chris differently to get the most out of him. JJ played middle for us today rather than hooker until we needed him.”
Looking ahead to the return of supporters the next time the Black & Whites take to the field, he added: “We’ll process the Catalans game when we get to it, but obviously the fans coming back really is excellent for us. We’ll use that as inspiration and motivation during the week, the fans coming back doesn’t mean we’re going to win, but I’m really confident in our players and our form at the moment.”
Brett Hodgson is proudly sponsored by Cladding King. To find out more – click here
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