Jake Trueman has warned Hull KR they’ll be facing a different Hull FC team on Sunday.
The in-form stand-off, 24, aims to bring derby joy to the Black and Whites side of the city. He was still recovering from ACL surgery and yet to make his Hull debut when they suffered a 40-0 Good Friday humiliation at home to Rovers. But the return of the ex-Castleford star has helped lift Tony Smith’s side who have won five of their last eight Super League matches ahead of the short return trip to Craven Park.
Trueman said: “We owe the fans one from last time. It was a bit of a non-contest at Easter and they got the better of us. Hopefully we get it done on Sunday. I know we’ll be a lot more competitive. And I’m really looking forward to the derby. I’ve heard so much about it and got to experience a little bit of it here watching that last one. It was intense. Unfortunately that day we had a bad patch and we were low on confidence. But we’ll be a different team this week.”
Back then, shambolic Hull were teetering near the end of an eight-game losing run but have beaten the likes of champions St Helens, Challenge Cup holders Wigan and high-flying Warrington in their encouraging resurgence. At the start of this round, they remained six points adrift of the play-off spots and four behind KR so they can ill-afford many more defeats.
Hull fell 28-18 against leaders Catalans a week ago but showed tremendous defensive resolve, four times holding players up over the goalline. It was a far cry from when Salford embarrassingly put 60 on them at home in March and rampant Rovers twisted the knife inflicting their rout. Great Britain tourist Trueman added: “We’ve built that defence over the last six to eight weeks.
"It felt like in that first half against Catalans, it was all them and we weren’t working as hard for each other. We were missing too many tackles. But we addressed that at half-time and showed that (resolve) in the second half. They are top of the table, though, and that shows it’s a step up for us. We’ve got to bridge that gap and it starts by beating teams around us like KR. It’s massive we get a victory on Sunday. We’ve got to start winning. Especially against teams like them.”
