Hull FC youngster makes Championship loan move to Hunslet RLFC
Hunslet have gained one loan player for Sunday’s visit of Widnes Vikings, but lost three others.
Twenty-year-old back Ben Johnson is set to feature after joining the Parksiders from Hull FC, but Jordan Baldwinson, Pauli Pauli and Sam Smeaton have all been recalled by parent club Doncaster. Coach Kyle Trout admitted: “We are a bit light in the forwards this week; unfortunately some loans fell through, but we welcome Ben Johnson from Hull who plays centre/half-back and is a good kid with exciting potential.”
Darcy Simpson and Jimmy Watson come into contention for Sunday, but Ant Walker (knee) has a knee injury and long-term casualty Kevin Larroyer is around two weeks away from a return to action. Trout noted: “It has been difficult with injuries and having to take loans. We want consistency week-on-week, but good teams get through adversity and we feel we can go after Widnes.”
Hunslet are on the back of a win over Salford last Sunday and Trout added: “We’ve trained well this week. We watched the Salford game again and picked apart what we did well and what we can improve on.
“Our attack was not its usual standard, but we dug in and defended well. We isolated their threat players and stuck to our task and our goal line defence was excellent.”
Widnes are fifth in the Betfred Chapionshiop, nine places above Hunslet. “We need to be on it with the ball and cut out the mistakes of last week,” Trout stressed.
“The positives are the lads are doing what we ask for, but the negatives are they sometimes don’t execute correctly. Credit to the lads, though, in their first season under me they’ve played some entertaining rugby and are a real threat.”