Hull FC’s Jordan Lane fires complacency warning to teammates ahead of trip to bottom side Leigh

Hull FC forward Jordan Lane has warned his teammates that they can’t afford to be complacent when they face Leigh Centurions away from home this weekend.

The Black and Whites started the Super League campaign well, but inconsistency has cost them at times in the opening third of the season and at the time of writing, they sit fifth in the table with 11 points from nine games.

They bounced back well last time out, coming out victorious at Castleford Tigers, but ahead of the team’s trip to Leigh, Lane stressed the importance of a strong mentality.

“We started well for the first four games then I feel like we got a bit complacent after that and let our standards slip a little bit with the losses that we had. I feel like sometimes we’ve gone to a team and expected a win, turned up, and they’ve given us a good game.

“We’ve turned up to a couple of teams and thought that we were going to put one over on them, but it hasn’t worked out that way. We can’t afford to be doing that, we need to brush that aside. We have to come to every game thinking that teams are going to give us a good 80 minutes.

“Hopefully then we will get the win on them. The next three or four games are very important for us and obviously we want to be winning them. With the Challenge Cup out of the way now, we’ve got to strive for the league and for the Grand Final so that’s what all our mindsets are on now.”

Hull’s opponents this weekend, Leigh Centurions, currently prop up the table and have struggled since their return to the top flight, winless in 10 and pointless as a result.

That said, the Centurions have come close in recent weeks and pushed table-toppers Catalans Dragons all the way last time out at the Leigh Sports Village, losing out by just six points in a 36-30 defeat.

Having reviewed the footage of that game, Lane thinks that Leigh’s success rate isn’t something to focus on.

“We have watched the Catalan game all week in training, and it was very fast. We don’t want the game to be that fast because it plays into Leigh’s hands, they’re a very good push side and we’ve been highlighting that all week.

“People will be expecting us to go over there and turn them over easily, but if we go there with that mindset, then there’s nothing stopping them putting points against us. They are a dangerous squad, especially in attack and they’re going to be throwing everything at us.

“If we want to be pushing the top three teams, the ones that are leading, we need to be on top form for this game, we need to go and give them 100% of what we are. Hopefully we can give a statement out there that we are a top three team.”

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