What Went Wrong for Hull?

After all the hype surrounding yesterday's Grand Final, St Helens eventually cantered to a 26-4 victory to complete a memorable and well-deserved treble.


A second-half blitz from the Saints overcame a Hull side that had promised so much, yet fell at the final hurdle despite a valiant attempt.

But where did it all go wrong?

St Helens are an outstanding side. They have created a side which can play superb attacking Rugby, keep the opposition scoring to a minimum and Daniel Anderson's side have set a benchmark that clubs will struggle to reach regardless of their resources. Give a side as strong as this an inch, and they won't only take a mile, they'll take far more than that.

As for the game itself, in my view, Hull made two critical mistakes. The first one came in the first 15 minutes. In the opening stages, Peter Sharpe's men had the better of the game. They took the game to St Helens and kept the minor premiers penned in their own half. They only thing they didn't do is score. They came close through Gareth Raynor, but after that initial quarter of an hour St Helens came back into the game and once Francis Meli gave them the lead, their tails were up.

The second mistake came on the stroke of half time. With the game at 4-4, Leon Pryce crossed to give St Helens the lead with the last action of the opening 40 minutes.

You can argue that the game was lost in the second half as fatigue caught up with Hull but that Pryce try took the wind out of Hull after a half where they probably should have been in front. Saints were ruthless in the second half, but they were allowed to take confidence from the first period by Hull's lack of composure in attack.

In the end, there was only going to be one winner of Super League XI. Hull can be proud of their performance this season, esspecially after overcoming a poor start to the season and the loss of their trophy winning coach from last season. Expect them to be around the higher reaches of the league next season and with the experience that yesterday will bring, they could go one better in SL12.