Agar hails 'smart' Fitzgibbon

Saturday 20th March 2010

Richard Agar warned that Hull must not take Australian forward Craig Fitzgibbon for granted after his outstanding display in the 18-6 win over Bradford.

The former Sydney Rooster produced a Herculean 80-minute performance to drag the Black and Whites over the winning line for the fourth home game out of four this season, but coach Agar is keen to keep a lid on the 32-year-old's capabilities.

"He's a smart player - one minute he shows the opposition he's resting and the next he's back at them," said Agar. "He knows when to take a blow. We should never underestimate his efforts or take them for granted."

Agar added: "He's proving how good he is and people might come to expect it, but he won't play at this level every week.

"But we're delighted with him and you can see the difference he has made in the changing room."

Agar lost stand-off Richard Horne to a rib injury before the game and saw winger Mark Calderwood limp off with a potentially serious hamstring injury, so he was pleased with the way his men stuck to their task.

"I thought that after the first half we needed to improve and we did," he said. "In the conditions we made too many errors and at half-time we thought we were cutting corners.

"I thought our kicking game was scratchy too, but Bradford are tough defensively and we had to work hard for what we got. It was a tough night. It bucketed it down with rain and was a bit of an arm wrestle. Our on line defence was terrific."

Steve McNamara was left to rue the sickness bug that has ravaged his Bradford squad after they slipped to a fourth defeat of the season.

"Matt (Orford) was pretty ill all week, as were a few of the boys," McNamara said. "I'm extremely proud of them all and the effort they've put in. It's been a pretty tough period for our group, so with the amount of effort they've put in, it's disappointing not to get something out of the game."