Radford wants more from Hull FC youngsters

Hull FC coach Lee Radford was disappointed with the way his young players handled playing in the derby friendly against Hull KR on Sunday.

Although he acknowledged that his team was less experienced in the pivot positions than Rovers, he felt that otherwise the sides were pretty even in terms of experience.

“They had a more experienced spine than us, but I wouldn’t have expected them to roll us up the field with the ease they did in that last 12 minutes,” he told reporters.

“That’s ultimately the taste it’s left in my mouth, of disappointment.

“Apart from the spine, it was level pegging, so we needed to do better there.

“But it’s brilliant, daft as it sounds, it’s answered some questions that we had.

“It’s highlighted some things we knew. I’ve just said to the physio, ‘Don’t ever walk in and tell me we’ve got more than seven injuries, otherwise you won’t walk out!’

“The boys that are in and around the first team were okay, and the boys that aren’t have obviously got some real work to do.

“On their side they’ve got age, I suppose, some of them are still academy players.

“We want to get those boys ready for the first team.”

Radford felt that his team were often lacking in the technical aspects of the game, with things like restarts an issue to be worked on.

With a training camp in Portugal scheduled for later this week, Radford is looking forward to ironing out some of those technical things on the training paddock soon.

“I can’t wait,” he said.

“You only have to look outside. The temperatures are starting to drop, and we’ve has to find alternate training fields because ours is iced up.

“So to have none of that at half six in the morning will be a pleasure, and to have some quality group sessions as well.

“With the group there now that we’ll have moving forward. Everybody’s back in, everybody will be good to go, and it’s a really important week for us that one.”