Berrigan, T Briscoe, Calderwood, Cusack, Dowes, Fitzgibbon, Hall, Horne, Houghton, Lauaki, Manu, Moa, O’Meley, Radford, Tickle, Turner, Washbrook, Whiting, Yeaman

According to the official Hull FC site Long is injured and no place for Tansey or Burnett. I do hope it is an injury for Tansey as he has been a consistent performer in the full back role. I am sure we will find out more as today progresses though.

My team would be

1, Horne  (Played FB plenty of times and solid in that position, would also give him a bit less work to do)

2, Calderwood

3, Hall

4, Yeaman

5, Briscoe

6, Whiting (A great player with natural ability would be worth giving him a go in this position)

7, Turner (Know very little of Turner but had rave reviews and has played here before)

8, Dowes

9, Berrigan

10, Radford

11, Manu

12, Tickle

13, Fitzgibbon

14, Houghton (Backup for Berro but could also be given a chance at 6/7)

15, Lauaki

16, Meeley

17, Moa

Cusack & Washbrook to miss out. Cusack has done nothing wrong but i feel Moa needs to be given a run out and by all accounts he played really well against York last week in the reserves. Washbrook showed again last week he cannot play in the middle and you cannot put him in place of Fitzgibbon who is just a machine.

After two impressive performances by Hull many expected this game to be a walk in the park. However with Sean Long injured it meant we would be going into the game without a recognised halfback pairing.

It soon became obvious we would struggle today not just because they scored early on with a good kick to the corner which was plucked out of the air by Youngquest and converted by Witt to make it 6-0, we seemed to go back to our sorry days of 2009 and lacked any inspiration in the final 20 metres of the field. Radford scored when he spotted a half gap on their line and Fitzgibbon converted to make it 6-6.

We did produce a decent couple of passes when Briscoe went over to make it 6-10 and Fitz converted to make it 6-12. Crusaders then made us work hard in defence they came close when their second rower looked to have scored be he knocked on before getting the ball down. Witt who had a very good game finally got the Crusaders back into the game when spotted a gap and went over for the try and added the extras to make it 12 each.

Half Time 12-12

Again we had no problem making the yards going forward but lacked the killer pass in the final 20. Lauaki was pretty anonymous during the game but he looked like he was going to score but was held up over the line.  A decent kick saw yeaman just get his fingertips to the ball and put Hull back in the lead however the ever reliable Fitzgibbon missed the conversion.

With the game on a knife edge and Hull not looking comfortable at all the inevitable happened and Youngquesg grabbed his second try of the game and it was the same kick and claim as the first try. Despite trying gamely Hull could not breach the crusaders defence again and the game ended with a well fought victory for the Crusaders.

Full Time 18-16

It became apparent yesterday that we are going to be relying heavily on Sean Long. Agar seemed to think that putting Washbrook in with Horne was going to work this season when it failed miserably last season. It was evident early on that it was not going to work this season as well.

Our first home game of the season and against a very well drilled Huddersfield side. They are not reknowned for scoring huge amounts of points but their success has been built on an excellent defence.

Agar named an unchanged side from last weeks and there was plenty of optimism from the supporters in the build up to the game. Most were predicting a close game with us to sneak it by a couple.

Danny Tickle got the first score of the night with a bulldozing run that some him just creep over the line, he then added the extras to make it 6-0 after Lauaki’s impressive game the previous week when he came on he was a marked man with an extra defender seeming to be assigned to him. His first touch saw him recieve the ball and run at the defence who were expecting him to try and barge through. Just before the collision he let out a deft pass to Whiting who then flicked the ball to Hall who raced away to score in the corner. Tickle added a wonderful touchline conversion to make it 12-0.

Half Time 12-0

The second half saw Huddersfield get onto the scoresheet with a fine try from Griz who resembled a pinball as he bounced from player to player before getting the ball down over the line. An easy conversion from Cudjoe made it a tight 12-6 scoreline.

A penalty in the Huddersfield half allowed tickle to make it 14-6 and give Hull some much needed breathing space. Huddersfield could have got back into the game on a number of occasions but for timely interventions from the referee first for a forward pass and then for a knock on. Towards the end of the game Hull were back on top forcing 4 goal line drop outs in a row.

All in all a good hard fought victory for Hull Fitzgibbon was a machine on the pitch putting in a staggering 51 tackles and 26 carries. Meeley also impressed along with Tickle who seems to have found his form again.

Other scores

Wigan 32 Hull Kr 6

Salford 16 Crusaders 36

Harlequins 16 Catalans 4

Castleford 16 Warrington 28

Bradford 6 St Helens 38

Wakefield 28 Leeds 18

Our first game of the season and one that has been a long time coming for many FC fans. We made the trip to St Helens in good spirit with plenty of optimism and anticipating a good game with some much needed enthusiasm from the players.

We arrived at Saints at approximately 4pm and evrything was fine, a couple of beers at a local hostelry before heading to the ground at 5pm.  Upon arriving at the ground conditions were ok with a light mist descending, unfortunately that light mist got progressively worse the closer we got to kick off time.   A 15 minute delay was announced and many felt the game would be called off, luckily for those of us who had travelled we got the green light to kick off.

The first 25 minutes were as tough as i have seen for a long time with Saints trying their hardest to break us down but our defence was more than a match for them.  Both sides had limited chances in the opening exchanges but a excellent tackle from Tansey stopped Saints opening the scoring.

Richard Horne put in a great grubber kick but just couldn;t retrieve it to open the scoring. Sean Long on his return to his former club played a key part in the first score of the game a good dummy run from Fitzgibbon left a gap for Manu to recieve from long and score just outside the posts. Tickle made short work of the conversion and it was 6-0 to Hull and the crowd were in great from.

Next on the scoresheet was Epalahame Lauaki when he handed off Pryce like he was swatting a fly and broke through four players to reach out and just ground the ball over the line and make it 10-0. Tickle and his trusty left peg made it 12-0.  Just before half time Saints looked to be making a comeback and were certain to score except for a wonderful tackle from Yeaman.

Half-Time 12-0

A couple of minutes into the second half and Tickle made it 14-0 with a penalty kick. The next score was the move of the game when Tickle drove the ball in and offloaded to Horne who raced down the pitch with Long in support, Horne drew the full back and slipped the ball to long who made a grat swan dive over the line to make it 18-0. Tickle added the conversion to make it 20-0 and the FC fans behind the posts were delirious.

Tom Briscoe ran the ball in and broke through the tackle minus his boot to scamper 80 metres to make it 24-0 a piece of sheer brilliance from the promising winger/center. Fitzgibbon took over the kicking duties and made it 26-0.  The referee then made a terrible decision by sin binning Jordan Tansey, after watching this back on video later Tansey clearly did nothing wrong but he got the yellow card and 10 minutes rest for his efforts.  With Hull down to 12 men Saints finally broke their duck when Gidley scored although it was a dubious try as video evidence also proved inconclusive.

With the score at 26-6 and with Saints with the extra man they started to make it count when Wilkin released Flannery to score and make it 26-10, Eastmond converted and at 26-12 some people though Saints were on the comback trail. Once Tansey returned to the field Hull again looked solid in defence and with the game coming to a close to the end a kick through from Long deflected of a Saints player and Fitzgibbon kicked on for Yeaman to score the final try of the game. Fitzgibbon converted and Hull were worthy 32-12 winners.

Man of The match was given to Long but the majority of fans felt Fitzgibbon was the stand out player of the game.  In the media after the game all reports focussed on how badly Saints played rather than how well Hull stopped them playing. Last year we would have lost the arm wrestle early on and lost by a big margin. Still it is only one game and we had the impressive Huddersfield Giants to contend with.

Other scores of the round

Wigan 38 Crusaders 6

Leeds 10 Castleford 24

Huddersfield 24 Bradford 12

Warrington 58 Harlequins 0

Hull Kr 30 Salford 12

Wakefield 28 Catalans 20

This is just a place for me to air my views on my beloved Hull FC. I have followed this team since the mid 70’s when i was not really old enough to take much notice.  My love of everything Hull FC has continued to grow and will continue to do so. My eldest son is now taking an interest and is a season ticket holder for his second season.