Cunningham ready for Hull’s challenge

St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham is ready for the challenge, personal as well as for his players, that comes from facing an in-form Hull FC team this Saturday.

Saints travel to the KC Stadium on the back of a 48-20 defeat to Huddersfield at the Magic Weekend.

Cunningham felt that the Giants were lucky to score so many points, and he feels that Hull will be tough, because they are in a similar streak where things are going their way.

“They’re a really good side and they recruited really well in the preseason,” said Cunningham of Hull.

“Things are just clicking for Hull at the minute, things are going reall well.

“It’s the same as the Huddersfield game – when things go your way, they really go your way.

“They’re in that real purple patch. It’s a good challenge for us as a club.

“Personally, it’s a good challenge for me as a coach to go up against Lee Radford, and a very dominant Hull side.

“Everybody’s written us off and told us what we can’t do already this year, so for me it’s about proving points wrong with the side that I’ve got, and the squad that I’ve got, that we can do things this year.

“I know what we’re capable of – I’ve seen it small areas, and not for long enough.

“What we’ve got to do is do it for bigger areas, for bigger periods of time, and then we can start competing and being involved in these real big games.”

Cunningham acknowledges that his team need more consistency to be successful this season, though he is expecting an improvement.

He wants his team to be more ruthless in defence rather than trying to entertain in attack.

“I keep saying to the players that when it gets to that crunch time, everybody’s going to pick up anyway,” he added.

“That’s what you do, when you’ve got to get consistency and you force it out of each other.

“You’ve got to be ruthless with each other, and you’ve got to demand it from each other as a team.

“That’s what we’re lacking a bit in that defensive area. With ball in hand we look brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

“But I’d rather win games by six points than 30.”