It’s been one tough ride for Hull FC over the last three months, but the satisfaction was there to see for all as they ended their 11-match losing run with victory over Leeds Rhinos last week.
For Jordan Lane, there was also an element of pride, but there’s now only one thing on his mind: kicking on. Producing arguably his best display of the season, the 26-year-old is now determined to take that form into the rest of the year while also knuckling down to further improve his game.
An ever-present figure in the Hull side this season, Lane, who has had to cover loose-forward, centre, and even hooker at times this year, has done exactly that. He sits third on the Super League tackle count, with a complete rate of 94%. He also had his best return in terms of metres last week, with 119 made from 15 carries.
Although Lane is happy with such stats, he is motivated to improve them. The forward attributes his impressive performance to one thing: confidence. In an interview with Hull Live, he stated: “I was pleased with my performance. I felt like I was in the game really early since I was getting my hands on the ball a lot.
“You feel terrific once you’ve carried yourself a few times. It has to do with confidence. To start the game right away, you want to get your hands on the ball as soon as possible and get a carry.In a few previous games, I went for 20 or 30 minutes without touching the ball, and I felt awful
“Playing as a back rower, I also run a lot of leads and push lines. It’s up to whoever has the ball to pass me or not, but if the ball doesn’t come my way, I’ve got to search for it too and try to get some short side carries and things like that.
“It also helps that we weren’t on the backfoot like we have been this season. Usually, we’re two or three scores down, and we’ll try to force things after doing a lot of defending. Against Leeds, it was the other way around, and we had the lead. We haven’t been in that spot for a while, but we were just playing with confidence.
“It just felt like our attack was a lot more flowing and connected. We need to carry that on into Warrington now, and we’ll cause some problems. I also know I have to back up my own performance this week. I don’t want it to be a one-off game. I want to carry that form for the rest of the season.”
As for the defensive side of his game, Lane, who has shown improvement this year, continued. “When I was playing in the middle at 13 at the start of the season, there was a lot of traffic coming my way. I was making 40 or 50 tackles a game, and now that I’m back on the edge, I don’t make as many.
“I probably make about 20 or 30 at a push, so I’ll probably drop down in rankings, but it’s the efficiency. That’s what I want to keep high. I’m not bothered about how many tackles I make, but if that percentage is high, then all that’s I really care about.”
Now preparing to take on Sam Burgess’ Warrington Wolves, Hull have been hard at work this week. They enjoyed their win over the Rhinos, but the squad has been keen to knuckle down and go again. However, that’s not to say the relief and emotions weren’t clear to see post-match after what has been an improved sequence of performances in recent games.
“We’ve been working hard behind the scenes at training to try and fix some stuff that we haven’t been very good at,” Lane said. “It’s a positive step, and in order to maintain that trajectory, we need to take another one this week. You feel more confident after the victory, and the atmosphere at camp has been positive. It’s a positive sensation, as all the boys seem excited about training.
“It did feel like a win was coming. We’ve had a lot to work on, and the things we’ve been doing in training have been to get us in the right spot. To see it come together in games and see that the boys want to work hard for each other, I think that’s the biggest thing last week; we all had each other’s back. If someone missed a tackle, we were all there to cover it.
“We have to take that into this week, the next week, and so on. We’ve got to be desperate but assertive with it too. It’s good to get the win, but we were still sloppy in some areas, so we’ve had a watch of that on video, and we’ve tried to fix those things up for this week. We know what Warrington are about, and we know what’s at stake, but we’re confident we can improve and put in another strong performance.”
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